Suresh Garimella is Associate Vice President for Engagement, and the Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, at Purdue University where he is Director of the National Science Foundation Cooling Technologies Research Center. He received his !PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989, his MS from The Ohio State University in 1986, and his Bachelor’s degree from IIT Madras, in 1985. His areas of expertise include renewable and sustainable energy systems technology and policy, micro- and nano-scale engineering, and energy efficiency in computing and electronics. Dr. Garimella has supervised over 70 !PhD and MS students, and co-authored over 450 refereed journal and conference publications and over a dozen patents/patent applications. Thirteen alumni from his research group are now faculty members in prestigious universities around the world. Dr. Garimella is a Fellow of the Center of Smart Interfaces at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Honorary Guest Professor at Xi’an !JiaoTong University in China, and was Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales in 1995.
Dr. Garimella has served as Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. Department of State since August 2010, in the International Energy and Commodity Policy office of the Economic Bureau. As a part of this Fellowship, he explored pathways to a clean energy future, analyzing cross-cutting issues at the intersection of energy security and climate change. He coordinated the March 2011 offering of the three-day Washington Energy Seminar, which is organized to brief officers across the U.S. Government on energy issues. As a member of the interagency roundtable working group on rare earth elements led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, he contributed to formulating diplomatic and policy solutions to recent supply shortages of critical materials. He was the State Department delegate to the Committee on Energy Research and Technology of the International Energy Agency. He also participated as a Member of the U.S.- Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Science & Technology Working Group visit to Moscow in February-March, 2011. Most recently, he was appointed Senior Fellow of the State Department’s Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA), a regional partnership announced by President Obama at the April 2009 Summit of the Americas to promote clean energy, advance energy security, fight energy poverty, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support strategies for sustainable landscapes and build capacity for climate change adaptation.
Dr. Garimella serves in editorial roles with several leading energy and thermal sciences-related journals. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). His efforts in research and engineering education have been recognized with the 2011 NSF Alexander Schwarzkopf Prize for Technological Innovation, the 2010 ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, the 2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Madras, the 2009 ASME Allan Kraus Thermal Management Award, the 2004 ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award, the 2011 College of Engineering Mentoring Award, the 1995 Graduate School/UWM Foundation Research Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, the 1997 UWM Distinguished Teaching Award, and the 1992 Society of Automotive Engineers' Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, among others.