Former ME Ph.D. student, Dr. Jian Cai (Ph.D. 2010) joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wyoming as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Cai conducted research on experimental investigations of turbulent mixing and turbulent combustion with Dr. Chenning Tong from 2005 to 2010. He did his Postdoc research on simulations of turbulent flames and radiative heat transfer in flames with Professor Michael Modest at the University of California at Merced. He is the fourth faculty member in the ME department at Wyoming with expertise in combustion, a research focus area of the department. His current research includes investigations of the interactions among turbulence, chemistry, and radiation in turbulent flames using both laser diagnostics and numerical simulations, as well as applied studies of advanced coal utilization such as gasification and oxy-coal combustion in response to national need for clean energy.
