Portonovo Ayyaswamy, Penn’s Asa Whitney Professor of Dynamical Engineering, is the recipient of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Engineering Alumni Professional Achievement Award at the University of California, Los Angeles; it is one of UCLA’s highest honors.

Dr. Ayyaswamy’s research is in the area of mechanical engineering, specifically modeling, simulations and experimentation of multi-phase flow/heat and mass transfer. Dr. Ayyaswamy has contributed to many diverse areas of heat transfer, mass transfer and fluid mechanics, including investigations of finite-sized bubble motion and the effects of surfactants in the context of gas embolism, forced convective effects on condensation, evaporation and combustion of moving drops and particles, the effect of electric fields on flames under normal and microgravity conditions, capillary flows related to heat pipes, buoyancy-driven flows and nanoparticle motion in the context of targeted drug delivery. He has also contributed to the containment safety and large-scale safety of nuclear reactors.