School of Engineering

Michael K. Jensen
Professor

Department Affiliation:

Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Nuclear Engineering

Education:

Ph.D., Iowa State University
Mechanical Engineering

M.S., Iowa State University
Mechanical Engineering

B.S., University of Missouri-Columbia
Mechanical Engineering

Background:

Michael Jensen received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1972 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University in 1976 and 1980, respectively. He began his teaching and research career at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and moved to Rensselaer in 1987. Currently, he is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering and holds a Professional Engineers license. Among many other university activities, he has served as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the department, been on the executive committee of the Faculty Senate, and served as the student-elected member on the Institute-wide Promotion and Tenure Committee. As principal investigator on 38 sponsored programs, including 17 multi-year grants from NSF, DOE, NIST, NYSERDA, and industry, and consultant to 25 industry and government organizations, Michael's research interests have been directed toward convective single- and two-phase heat transfer and the associated fluid flows with an emphasis on these processes in heat exchangers and using enhanced heat transfer techniques. Recent research has focused on microchannel flows, solar energy, and fuel cells. With his graduate students (26 MS, 13 PhD), he has performed both fundamental and applied research and has conducted both experimentally and numerically based research on a wide range of topics. Dr. Jensen has published over 120 archival technical papers, edited 10 volumes, 30 other assorted reports, and has published an undergraduate textbook on thermal and fluids engineering. He has one patent. Michael has been honored as a Fellow of ASME, twice has received the student chosen Lewis T. Assini Undergraduate Teaching and Counseling Award, and has received the Ralph R. Teetor Award of SAE. He is active in his profession, having served or is serving on editorial boards of four international journals (Journal of Heat Transfer, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science; Applied Thermal Engineering, Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology), served on the Executive Committee of the Heat Transfer Division of the ASME (recently as Chair), and appointed as Alternate Delegate to Assembly for International Heat Transfer Conferences. He has been chair or co-chair of six international conferences (including the National Heat Transfer Conference) and has been invited to be on numerous scientific committees for other national and international conferences. He is an active reviewer for numerous international journals and conferences and NSF, DOE, NASA, and NYSERDA proposals.

Read More: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/mane/deptweb/index.html

Research Interests:

Michael Jensen's research interests have been directed toward convective single and two-phase heat transfer and the associated fluid flow with the emphasis on these processes in heat exchangers. This research has been experimentally based, but numerical analysis using sophisticated computational fluid dynamics codes that can handle many general situations has been and is being used to complement the experimental work and to suggest additional avenues for investigation. Recent research has involved boiling and two-phase flow in microchannels (as applied to electronic cooling), transport processes in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, development of a building integrated photovoltaic system, and the development of a thermal management approach for distributed, large-scale, high-power electronic systems.