News Article

Okiishi to receive ASME award

 

AMES, Iowa—Ted Okiishi, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, has been selected to receive the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2008 R. Tom Sawyer Award.

The award recognizes Okiishi for his significant contributions to the International Gas Turbine Institute, gas turbine education, and advancements in gas turbine compressor aerodynamic research. He will receive the award in June at the 2008 ASME International Turbo Expo in Berlin, Germany.

Okiishi, who retired in August 2007, joined the mechanical engineering faculty in 1967. He served 5 years as department chair and 12 years as the College of Engineering Associate Dean for Research and Outreach. Okiishi was elected an ASME Fellow in 1992 and received the ASME Dedicated Service Award in 2005 for his years of voluntary service to ASME and the International Gas Turbine Institute. He and his former students won the ASME Melville Medal for best original paper society-wide in 1989 and again in 1998.

Okiishi says his students, most of whom have gone on to become leaders in gas turbine technology at prominent engine companies and laboratories, share the credit for the award. “I was so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with so many great students,” he says. Okiishi and his students conducted gas turbine engine research under the sponsorship of GE Aircraft Engines, Textron Lycoming, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the National Science Foundation.

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