Leslie M. Phinney is an American

thermal engineer Thermal engineering is a specialized sub-discipline of mechanical engineering that deals with the movement of heat energy and transfer. The energy can be transferred between two mediums or transformed into other forms of energy. A thermal engineer ...

and an expert on microscale heat transfer, particularly involving thin films, surfaces, and boundaries between different materials. She is a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories.

Education and career

Phinney majored in

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

at 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 ...

, graduating in 1990. After a year at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

as a Churchill Scholar, she went to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

for graduate study in mechanical engineering, earning a master's degree in 1994 and completing her Ph.D. in 1997. She became a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1997, and in 2003 moved to Sandia National Laboratories.

Recognition

Phinney was named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2010. In 2017 the

Society of Women Engineers The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international not-for-profit educational and service organization. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in the United States, the Society of Women Engineers is a major advocate for women in engineering and ...

gave her their Prism Award, honoring her for "charting her own path throughout her career, providing leadership in technology fields and professional organizations along the way".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phinney, Leslie Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American mechanical engineers American women engineers University of Texas at Austin alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Sandia National Laboratories people Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers