Congratulations to Dr. Richard S. Figliola! He has won the Centennial Professorship Award for 2015 and was named an Alumni Distinguished Professor at the 2015 Victor Hurst Convocation.
Richard Figliola is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering at Clemson University. He has served previously as ME Department Chair.
In 2011, he received the Class of 1939 Award for Excellence, Clemson University’s highest faculty award. A Fellow of ASME, he serves on the ASME PTC 19.1 – the National Committee on Test Uncertainty.
Dr. Figliola has published extensively in the area of fluid and thermal transport and many of his publications discuss novel measurement methods. He is senior author of an engineering measurements textbook that is now its 6th edition, and is the most widely adopted measurements book in the world with more than 250,000 US students having studied from the book. He holds 5 patents and has engineered several successful commercial products, including a Coriolis mass flow meter, a mattress cover that prevents pressure ulcers in bedridden patients, and a breakthrough in a prime-mover design.
He has a background in aerospace and heat transfer, which still occupy part of his research as they relate to air vehicle systems integration and uncertainty analysis. His research in biofluid mechanics involves experimental patient-specific models to better understand the hemodynamics associated with right heart congenital defects and single ventricle physiology. Diagnostic tests pioneered by Dr. Figliola are still required by the FDA for the certification of new artificial heart valves.
Since, January 2010 he has served as the US leader of the Leducq Foundation Transatlantic Network focused on Single Ventricle Heart Defects, which involves 8 engineering and clinical centers in the US and Europe. His recent works are supported by the Leducq Foundation, NIH, National Science Foundation, and the US Air Force.
The Centennial Professorship is bestowed by the Clemson University faculty upon an outstanding colleague who is tenured or has a tenure-track appointment with demonstrated excellence in one or more of the following areas: undergraduate and/or graduate teaching, applied and/or basic research, public/extension service, and librarianship. The award will be approximately $12,000 per year, which can be used at the recipient’s discretion for a salary supplement, travel, supplies, equipment, and/or graduate student support. The Centennial Professorship is for a non-renewable two-year term. Recipients are recognized at the General Faculty Meeting in May. Caricatures by Kate Salley Palmer of award recipients are placed in the Madren Center.
The Centennial Professorship was established by the Faculty Senate in 1988. In 1987, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution concerning establishing a named professorship to honor excellence in teaching. The Centennial Professorship is the professorship created from that initiative. The faculty of Clemson University and their friends raised funds, and the Commission of Higher Education rewarded a matching grant to Clemson University for the creation of the Centennial Professorship fund. Since 1992, the Centennial Professorship Award has promoted excellence in teaching, research, service, and librarianship.
Clemson’s news release with a video clip.
Since 1962, the Clemson Alumni Association has named Alumni Distinguished Professors to recognize and support excellence in teaching. Students, faculty members and administrators select the recipients, who receive a yearly stipend made possible by alumni gifts to the Clemson Fund, the university’s annual giving fund.
