Brown School of Engineering Lecturer Jennifer Franck has been awarded a 2017 Karen T. Romer Prize for Undergraduate Advising and Mentoring.
The award was established in 2004 by the family of trustee Marty Granoff, and is named for a former Associate Dean of the College who was a creative and passionate advocate for undergraduate education. The Romer Advising Prize is presented each year to two faculty members who have shown exceptional dedication, imagination, and commitment in their mentoring of undergraduates. Each winner receives an award of $7,000.
Franck is a member of the Fluids and Thermal Sciences group within the School of Engineering. Her research expertise is in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), particularly the ability to simulate complex, turbulent flows that often occur in engineering and renewable energy applications. She recently shared a RI Innovation Voucher award with Aquanis, LLC to help unlock research and development capacity in Rhode Island. In their proposed project, simulations by Franck will provide critical information to aid in the development, field trials and commercial deployment of Aquanis systems in the wind energy market. Franck was the recipient of a Teaching with Technology Award in 2015, and was named a junior faculty teaching fellow in 2015-2016.
Franck received her B.S. from University of Virginia in aerospace engineering in 2003, followed by a M.S. in aeronautics (2004) and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering (2009) from California Institute of Technology. She was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University from 2009-2011, and joined the faculty as a lecturer in 2012. She teaches courses in Dynamics and Vibrations, Fluid Mechanics, and Numerical Methods in Engineering, and serves as chair of the honors thesis committee for the School of Engineering.
Romer prize winners are selected by a committee of students, faculty, and administrators, after a campus-wide call for nominations and student testimonials. Associate Professor, and current Associate Dean of the Faculty, Janet Blume, who won the award in 2011, is the only other Engineering professor to have been honored with the Romer prize. The formal presentation of the award will take place on Monday, May 1, at the University Awards Ceremony organized by the Harriet W. Sheridan Center. The ceremony will begin with a reception at 4 p.m. in Pembroke Hall 305 followed by the presentation of awards at 5 p.m. in the same location.