Shankar Mahalingam, Dean of UAH College of Engineering, named 2025 Sigma Xi Fellow

BYLINE: Russ Nelson

Newswise — Dr. Shankar Mahalingam, dean of the College of Engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of The University of Alabama System, has been tapped to join the 2025 Sigma Xi Cohort of Fellows. The honor, bestowed by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society, celebrates “exceptional contributions to the scientific enterprise.” The award recognizes Mahalingam’s “pioneering research in turbulent combustion modeling, fire-spread dynamics and fluid–structure interactions, combined with his sustained service in mentoring students, leading engineering departments and advancing computational science at multiple institutions,” in making the announcement.

Sigma Xi is the international honor society of science and engineering and one of the oldest and largest scientific organizations in the world, boasting a history of service to science and society spanning over 125 years. Scientists and engineers comprise the membership of the Society. Sigma Xi chapters can be found at colleges and universities, government laboratories and industry research centers across the globe and the group counts more than 200 Nobel Prize winners among its members.

“Being named a Sigma Xi Fellow is one of the Society’s highest honors,” said Jamie Vernon, executive director and CEO of Sigma Xi. “Our Fellows exemplify the ideals of research excellence, integrity and service that define Sigma Xi. Through their contributions, they advance scientific discovery and inspire the next generation of researchers.”

The Fellows program of Sigma Xi recognizes members who have achieved exceptional results in research or engineering, demonstrated sustained scholarship and mentorship, and contributed significantly to the mission of the Society. This year’s cohort points to the interdisciplinary nature of Sigma Xi’s membership, representing diverse fields in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as institutions across academia, government and industry.

“I was fortunate to become a member of Sigma Xi as a Ph.D. student at Stanford University,” Mahalingam notes. “The embodiment of Sigma Xi is science in its purest form. It impacts the way we think, the way we live and how we come up with solutions to make humanity better for all.”

Shankar Mahalingam has served 15 years as Dean of the College of Engineering and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UAH. In his decanal role, he has helped graduate over 7,500 BS, M.S./M.S.E. and Ph.D. degreed engineers, improved graduation rates significantly and overseen the growth of college research expenditures by nearly a factor of 10. The honoree recruited faculty who have become fellows and associate fellows of prestigious engineering societies and organizations. Eleven junior faculty have received National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awards.

The honoree received his B.Tech., graduating with distinction, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, his M.S. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Ph.D. from Stanford University, all in the discipline of Mechanical Engineering. He was on the faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder, for 11 years, and in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Riverside, for 10 years. At UC Riverside, Mahalingam served as Department Chair for six years and helped initiate their Ph.D. program. He also served as Visiting Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and Invited Professor at the Laboratoire EM2C, Ecole Centrale Paris, France.

Mahalingam’s research expertise includes direct and large eddy simulations of turbulent combustion, forest fire modeling, flame spread experiments, computational fluid dynamics applied to turbulent combustion, acoustic-flow interactions pertinent to solid rocket motors and cardiovascular fluid dynamics. He was amongst the earliest group of researchers to develop direct and large eddy simulation methodology to study coflowing jet diffusion flames.

The honoree is one of the leading experts in the area of modeling transition behavior in fires, including marginal burning and transition of surface fires to crown fires, utilizing both simulations and laboratory scale experimentation. He has also examined the role of fuel moisture in ignition and fire spread and has coauthored over 150 refereed publications and conference proceedings.

Mahalingam has taught undergraduate and graduate courses starting from introductory mechanical engineering classes to advanced, special topics classes for graduate students. He has supervised/co-supervised the dissertations of 15 Ph.D. students across three universities and is a member of the Combustion Institute, American Physical Society (Fluid Dynamics), International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS), ASEE, Tau Beta Pi (Eminent Engineer) & Sigma Xi. Dr. Mahalingam is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).