Director
Dr. Bladimir Ramos-Alvarado is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the principal investigator of the Interfacial Phenomena Lab (IPHEL) at Penn State University, he is a member of the Materials Computation Center at Penn State, and an Associate of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) at Penn State. He also serves as a Subject Matter Editor for Applied Thermal Engineering (Elsevier). Dr. Ramos obtained a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree, both in Mechanical Engineering, from the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Later on, he continued his education at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) where he obtained a PhD and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2016. After brief Postdoctoral and Instructor appointments at Georgia Tech, Dr. Ramos joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University as an Assistant Professor in May 2017. Dr. Ramos’ research interests are strongly focused on modeling transport processes at different length scales and multiphysics modeling. Dr. Ramos’ primary research focuses on atomistic scale modeling of thermal and momentum transport across solid-liquid interfaces and how these phenomena relate to surface chemistry and interfacial liquid properties; additionally, he has conducted research on molecular dynamics modeling of friction in solid-solid interfaces, mechanical properties of 2-D materials, and dielectric polymer nanocomposites. He also has vast experience designing, optimizing, and testing liquid-cooling devices for electronics. In the past, he conducted research on the experimental characterization of PEM fuel cell operation, water transport/management in PEM fuel cells, and numerical modeling of PEM fuel cells. The wide span of Dr. Ramos’ research interests is contained in the archival records of journals such as the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Applied Thermal Engineering, Applied Physics Letters, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, and Physical Review E, among others. Dr. Ramos’ research has been published in 49 archival Journal papers, 1 book chapter, and 19 papers in Conference Proceedings, and has been cited over 1600 times.
Applied Thermal Engineering – Editorial Board
Postdoctoral Scholars
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Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, India, in 2022. Before joining Penn State, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Rice University, Houston, USA, and as a Project Scientist at IIT Kanpur. His research includes various aspects of Fluid and Thermal Sciences, including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling, Design and analysis of Concentrating Solar Power and Thermal Storage Systems, Thermal management of Photovoltaic Systems, and Solar Thermal Membrane Distillation. He has extensive experience in experimental approaches, utilizing advanced techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Contact Angle Measurement, Thermocouple Calibration, Fluid Flow Experiments, etc. Dr. Sharma is proficient in working with computational tools including COMSOL Multiphysics, ANSYS, SolidWorks, SolarPILOT, PVsyst, MATLAB, and C++. At Penn State, his research focuses on the thermal management of high-power electronic devices, addressing key challenges in this field. |
Graduate Students
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Abdul Aziz Shuvo (Graduate Research Assistant) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University. He received his BS (2019) and MS (2022) degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka. He conducted research on the thermal cooling of high-power electronic devices. He has also experience in Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) and Focused Ion Beam (FIB). His research interests are focused on the thermal management of high-power electronic devices and atomistic interactions at solid-liquid interfaces. |
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Emdadul Haque Chowdhury (Graduate Research Assistant) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University. He completed his B.Sc. (2021) in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in Dhaka. He has experience in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of 2D materials and fluids. In addition, he worked on the ReaxFF reactive MD force-field development and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. His research interests include but are not limited to MD simulations, DFT calculations, nanoscale heat transport, mechanical, and thermal properties of materials. |
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Juan Pablo Murrieta Cortes (Graduate Research Assistant, co-advised with Prof. Sukwon Choi) is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University. He earned his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering (2024) from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (Mexico). His research interests include liquid cooling and thermal management of high-power-density microelectronics, nanoscale heat transfer, molecular dynamics simulations, and experimental thermo-physical property measurements of GaN/diamond heterostructures. He is also experienced in CAD modeling for various mechanical design applications. |
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Md Adnan Mahathir Munshi (Graduate Research Assistant) is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University. He completed his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka. His research interests lie at the intersection of Mechanics, Materials Science, Additive Manufacturing, and Machine Learning, with a particular focus on leveraging data-driven techniques to predict material behavior. Additionally, he has hands-on experimental experience in the electrical and thermal characterization of semiconductor devices and materials, along with their control mechanisms. |
World Campus MS Students
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Andrew Snyder is an online MSME student at Penn State University. He received his BSME from the University of Southern Maine in 2016. He has helped design and procure equipment for consumer electronics manufacturing and supercritical CO2 power generation. Most recently, he has been learning to apply commercial finite element modeling software for thermal analysis. His research interests include the cooling management of electronics and the thermal properties of electronic packages. |
Undergraduate Students
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Bayley Grizzanti (Undergraduate Research Assistant) is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Penn State University with minors in Engineering Design and Engineering Mechanics (expected 2026). He is currently a Teaching Assistant at the Penn State Learning Factory engineering maker space. Through his work designing military fixed-wing pilot helmets, he has practical experience in CAD modeling and simulation (FEA & CFD). His research interests include designing, simulating, prototyping, and experimentation of mechanically actuated liquid-cooled heat sinks. |
Alumni
PhD Students
4. Luis E. Paniagua-Guerra, December 2023, “Molecular dynamics investigation of heat transfer in solvated plasmonic nanoparticles”.
Currently: Postdoctoral scholar at Penn State.
3. Devon Eichfeld, August 2023, “Development of a new sub-micron metrology technique and optimization of thermal rectifier design using novel materials”.
Currently: Postdoc at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
2. Carlos Perez, August 2023, “Thermal transport in materials and structures pertinent to quantum cascade lasers”.
Currently: Postdoc at The Pennsylvania State University.
1. Ulises Gonzalez-Valle, August 2021, “Implications of the interface modelling approach on the heat transfer across solid-liquid interfaces and thin-film”.
Currently: Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
MS Students
11. Maria Loreto, August 2024, “Design and modeling of a liquid-cooled heat sink with mechanical actuation for heat transfer enhancement“.
Currently: L3Harris Technologies.
10. Marcus Perovich, August 2024, “Environmental effects on graphite-silica superlubricity: a ReaxFF investigation“.
Currently: Bettis Atomic Laboratory.
9. Joshua Aviles, August 2022, “Liquid-cooled heat sink for multilevel inverters with considerations for heat spreading and manufacturability”.
Currently: Northrop Grumman Space Systems.
8. Joshua Morse, August 2021, “Tradeoffs of electronics liquid-cooling design features”.
Currently: Keysight Technologies.
7. Timothy Deley, December 2020, “Effect of building material on the cooling performance of additively manufactured liquid-cooled heat sinks”.
Currently: Raytheon.
6. Carlos Ulises Gonzalez-Valle (August 2020), “Experimental investigation of the cooling performance of 3-D printed hybrid water-cooled heat sinks”.
Currently: see PhD Alumni.
5. Luis E. Paniagua-Guerra (August 2020). “Efficient hybrid microjet liquid cooled heat sinks made of photopolymer resin: thermo-fluid characteristics and entropy generation analysis”.
Currently: See PhD alumni.
4. Daniela Rocca-Bejar, August 2020, “Heating response study of aluminum nanoparticles with molecular dynamics simulations”.
Currently:
3. Michael Faucett Jr, August 2019, “Optimization of microjet liquid-cooling systems for CPUs”.
Currently: General Motors, Detroit, Michigan.
2. Renrui Lin, August 2018, “Thermal optimization of liquid-cooled heat sinks for power converters using micro channels”.
Currently: IT specialist in China.
1. Shitiz Sehgal, August 2018, “Numerical insights of fluid-thermal characteristics in a hybrid microjet liquid cooled heat sink”.
Currently: PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Undergrads
Juan Pablo Murrieta-Cortes (Visiting Student), July – December, 2023 – “Liquid-cooled Heat Sink Design Methodology with Technical and Commercial Viability Considerations: Case Study of a Partially 3-D Printed Prototype”
Currently: Upcoming PhD student at Penn State.
Yu-Han Wu, January – April, 2023 – “Experimental testing of liquid-cooled heat sinks”
Currently: Graduate student at UC Berkeley.
Aidan Robinson, August – December, 2022 – “Design of a control and heating system for a tribometer”
Currently: All4-Philadelphia
Harin Chhadva, August – December, 2021 – “Design of a test bench for liquid-cooled heat sinks”
Currently: Mechanical Strategic Engineer at Constellation Energy
Cheng Li, January – May, 2020 – “Hydraulic optimization of 3-D fractal manifolds”
Currently: Amazon
Saurabh Samir (Visiting Student), May – July, 2019 – “Experimental investigation of the performance of resin-made liquid-cooled heat sinks”.
Currently: Indian Institute of Technology.
Jean Carlos Cortés Rivera (Visiting Student), June – August, 2019 – NSF REU: Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Complex Materials.
Currently: University of Puerto Rico at Cayey (UPR Cayey)
Hunter C. Maholic, January – May, 2019.
Jonathan Veli, August – December, 2018 – “Design and fabrication of liquid-cooled heat sinks using additive manufacturing”
Currently: Intern at Timken
Matthew Shultz, May – August, 2018 – “Analysis and optimization of liquid-cooled cold plates using pin fins”
Currently: Product development engineer, Advanced Cooling Technologies.