UTA associate professor named fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Ashfaq Adnan, an associate professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Arlington, has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Adnan, who has been at UTA since 2010, was honored for his “significant contributions to the field of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and multiscale mechanics of biological, bioinspired and engineered materials.”

“This is a tremendous career step and reflects Professor Adnan’s scholarly achievements and research leadership, as well as the esteem in which he is held by his peers in the profession,” UTA President Vistasp Karbhari said. “Fellowship status in ASME is accorded to the very best–in fact to less than 3% of those in the field–and hence is not just a prestigious recognition, but also one of professional distinction. I’m extremely proud of Ashfaq and am thrilled to see him being recognized for his important contributions to the field of TBI and bio-materials. I’m especially grateful to him, as I am of all of our tremendous faculty, for the way in which he engages our students in his research and scholarship.”

Adnan has been involved in more than $2.35 million in research grants since he joined UTA in 2010 following postdoctoral work at Northwestern University. He earned his doctoral degree in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from Purdue University.

“I am honored to earn this recognition,” Adnan said. “I am sincerely grateful to my family, colleagues and peers for their support and inspiration. I’d like to thank UTA for giving me the support, opportunity and resources to build my academic career, as well as the funding agencies that supported my research ideas.

“I am especially thankful to the Office of Naval Research and Timothy Bentley, the program manager for the Naval Force Health Protection Program, for funding my research proposals addressing traumatic brain injury. Special thanks goes to my students and postdocs for their hard work and research contributions.”

In 2019, Adnan chaired UTA’s first International Symposium on Traumatic Brain Injury Mechanisms and Protections, with leading researchers and experts from around the world gathering to identify knowledge gaps in TBI research and exchange ideas to accelerate research progress.

He has two active grants from the Office of Naval Research and a National Institutes of Health sub-award totaling $885,000 to support his research related to blast-induced traumatic brain injury. He previously published research determining that, under certain circumstances, the mechanical forces of a blast-like event could damage the perineuronal net located adjacent to the neurons, which could in turn damage the neurons themselves.

In 2015, he won a highly competitive $120,000 Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research award from the National Science Foundation to advance his work to modify molecular structures and blend ceramics to create new material that would be less brittle but retain the strength of the original ceramic.

He also has received summer faculty fellowships with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Office of Naval Research.

“Dr. Ashfaq Adnan has made significant contributions to the field of TBI and multiscale mechanics of biological, bioinspired and engineered materials–timely, forward-looking and contributing to the betterment of life and society,” said Erian Armanios, chair of UTA’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.

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Adnan is the seventh current College of Engineering professor to be honored as an ASME Fellow. ASME serves a wide-ranging engineering community through quality learning, the development of codes and standards, certifications, research, conferences and publications, government relations, and other forms of outreach. Established in 1880, it has 105,109 members worldwide.

–Written by Jeremy Agor, College of Engineering