Susan C. Mantell is an American mechanical engineer interested in the design, fabrication, and longevity of structures made from

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

s and

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

s, and the use of these structures in renewable energy systems and energy-efficient architecture. Her research has also included work on

microelectromechanical systems 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, ...

. She is James J. Ryan Professor, Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor, and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering 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 ...

Education and career

Mantell majored in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, graduating in 1981. After working in industry in Massachusetts for several years, she returned to graduate study for a master's degree at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

in 1987, and then a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1991. She became an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota in 1991, choosing the university in part to solve a

two-body problem In classical mechanics, the two-body problem is to predict the motion of two massive objects which are abstractly viewed as point particles. The problem assumes that the two objects interact only with one another; the only force affecting each ...

with her husband, who was entering graduate study at the same time. There, she became the only woman in the university's Department of Mechanical Engineering. She was promoted to associate professor in 1998 and full professor in 2003. She has been James J. Ryan Professor, and head of the mechanical engineering department, since 2019.

Recognition

Mantell was elected as an ASME Fellow in 2016. The University of Minnesota Alumni Association gave Mantell the Horace T. Morse Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, and she was given the permanent designation as a Distinguished University Teaching Professor, in 2011.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mantell, Susan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American mechanical engineers American women engineers Stanford University alumni Northeastern University alumni University of Minnesota faculty Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers