AME Welcomes Mashayek and Yurkiv

Two new faces have joined the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering this semester, including a new department head. 

Farzad Mashayek, who earned his PhD in mechanical engineering at State University of New York at Buffalo, serves as AME's new department head. He has been the head of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago for over a decade. There, he doubled the size of the faculty, increased undergraduate enrollment by 85% and grew graduate enrollment by 120%. He looks forward to fostering similar growth levels in AME.

His research focuses on two-phase turbulent reactive flow, and his research group has been working toward developing a software for numerical simulation of supersonic combustion in advanced engines. He also has ongoing research activities in energy storage and batteries, as well as electrostatic atomization.

“When I came for my interviews, I liked the vision of the dean and of the university as a whole,” he said. “I think there is a good opportunity to make an impact and build in some very niche areas.”

Vitaliy Yurkiv has also joined AME's faculty as an assistant professor. Yurkiv completed his PhD in scientific computing and material science at Heidelberg University, then worked for the German Aerospace Center and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He researches multi-physics modeling and machine learning calculation of energy storage and conversion technologies. His work in thermodynamics, computational solid mechanics, fluid mechanics and electrochemistry has applications in energy storage and conversion technologies. He also researches neural networks. 

Yurkiv is excited to expand his multiscale modeling of complex energy storage systems.

“I will continue working in the area of multi-scale and multi-physics energy storage (secondary and flow batteries) modeling and simulation, as well as its system integration (e.g. electric vehicles), to further benefit the overall mission of the University of Arizona and society as a whole,” he said.

Mashayek and Yurkiv join 14 other new faculty at the University of Arizona College of Engineering for the new academic year.