Adnan Akay
Director of Civil and Mechanical Systems Division
National Science Foundation

When: Monday, August 4, 2008
Time:  8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Room: Salon D/E

Adnan Akay joined the National Science Foundation as the director of Civil and Mechanical Systems Division on July 1, 2005 taking a leave of absence from Carnegie Mellon University. On July 1, 2006, he also assumed the position of Acting Director for the Division of Design and Manufacturing Innovation. Currently he serves as the Director for Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division that resulted from the merger of the two. Dr. Akay joined Carnegie Mellon as a professor and head of the Mechanical Engineering Department in 1992. In 1997, he was awarded the endowed Lord Chair in Engineering. From 1978 to 1992, he was on the faculty at Wayne State University where he last held the DeVlieg Chair in Engineering. Between 1976 and 1978 he was a visiting staff fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health. He has held visiting appointments at MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, the University of Rome "La Sapienza," and Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) de Lyon in France. He currently serves as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of Pratt & Whitney.

Adnan Akay's research lies in applied mechanics with emphasis on vibrations and acoustics. Much of his current research focuses on friction-induced vibrations and sounds, addressing aircraft and automotive brake noise, and on contact damping aimed at vibrations in complex structures. A current collaborative research project with the University of Rome applies the concept of thermalization of vibrations, inspired by the dynamics of atoms in a solid, to reduce vibrations in complex structures. He is a fellow of ASME and the Acoustical Society of America.