Jayathi Y. Murthy is an Indian-American mechanical engineer who is the current President of

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

. Previously, she was the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of the

UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, informally known as UCLA Samueli School of Engineering or UCLA Engineering, is the school of engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It opened as the Colle ...

at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

where she was also a distinguished professor. Her research interests include macroelectronics,

computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate th ...

heat transfer Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, ...

, and

phase-change material A phase change material (PCM) is a substance which releases/absorbs sufficient energy at phase transition to provide useful heat or cooling. Generally the transition will be from one of the first two fundamental states of matter - solid and liq ...

s. Murthy has served on the Engineering and Computer Science jury for the Infosys Prize since 2018.

Education and career

Murthy is the daughter of an Indian civil engineer. Originally from

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, she was a student at St. Ann's High School, Secunderabad. After graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, she earned a master's degree at

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

before completing her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 1984 at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. Murthy became an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

in 1984, but left academia in 1988 to join Fluent Inc., a computational fluid dynamics firm, where she served in various key positions including Manager, New Business Development Group and Manager, R&D. Fluent Inc. was later acquired by Ansys. She returned to academia in 1998 as an associate professor of mechanical engineering at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, moved to

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

in 2001, and became Robert V. Adams Professor of Mechanical Engineering there in 2008. She moved again to the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

in 2012, as department chair. From 2008-2014, Murthy served as the director of the Center for Prediction of Reliability, Integrity and Survivability of Microsystems (PRISM), a center of excellence supported by the

National Nuclear Security Administration The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is a United States federal agency responsible for safeguarding national security through the military application of nuclear science. NNSA maintains and enhances the safety, security, and e ...

(NNSA). In 2016, Murthy became dean at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the first woman dean in the engineering school's history. She established the UCLA Women in Engineering program (WE@UCLA), which is committed to enabling the full participation, success, and advancement of women in engineering and computer science, and is open to all students who support this mission. As of June 7, 2022, Murthy was officially announced as the President of Oregon State University by the board of trustees. She took office September 9, 2022.

Recent research

Murthy's recent research has addressed sub-micron thermal transport, multiscale multi-physics simulations of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (

MEMS Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), also written as micro-electro-mechanical systems (or microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems) and the related micromechatronics and microsystems constitute the technology of microscopic devices, ...

and NEMS), and the uncertainty quantifications involved in those systems.

Recognition

In 2020, Murthy was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering "for the development of unstructured solution-adaptive finite volume methods for heat, mass, and momentum transport." She is a foreign fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and a fellow of the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

(ASME). With Brent W. Webb and Raj M. Manglik, Murthy won the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award in 2016, and she was the 2012 winner of the ASME K16 Clock Award for "outstanding and continuing contributions to the science and engineering of heat transfer in electronics". Murthy is the author of more than 330 technical publications, an editor of the second edition of the Handbook of Numerical Heat Transfer, and serves on the editorial boards of Numerical Heat Transfer and the International Journal of Thermal Sciences.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murthy, Jayathi Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American mechanical engineers American women engineers Indian mechanical engineers Indian women engineers IIT Kanpur alumni Washington State University alumni University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni Arizona State University faculty Carnegie Mellon University faculty Purdue University faculty University of Texas at Austin faculty University of California, Los Angeles faculty Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering