Congratulations to Sushanta Mitra

Mechanical engineering professor Sushanta Mitra has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Edmonton—Mechanical engineering professor Sushanta Mitra has been named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers—a distinction reserved for those whose work provides “solutions that benefit mankind.”

Mirta, who was born in India and earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering (with honours) at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India. His father, a physicist, sparked Mitra’s curiosity in engineering.

“He would come home with all these Popular Mechanics magazines and I’d read them,” he said. “I was good with math and science, and I wanted to become an engineer.”

Today, Mitra has authored more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journal and conference proceedings. He is the editor of a two-volume Microfluidics and Nanofluidics Handbook, has contributed significantly to the ASME for various international conferences. He has devoted the last ten years of his professional career towards teaching and advancement of the mechanical engineer profession.

Mitra has made many important contributions to the field of microfluidic instrumentation by applying his unusual abilities and insights as a mechanical engineer. Mitra has been working of different aspects of transport processes in micro and nano-scale confinements. His primary focus has been to understand capillary transport in microfluidic devices with applications in detection of biomolecules. He has developed comprehensive theoretical models for capillary transport in microchannels. Apart from traditional lab-on-a-chip applications, his group has pioneered the use of Focus Ion Beam – Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM) technique to characterize the micro/nanostructure of porous reservoir rocks and understand the pore scale transport, which has direct bearing with oil and gas exploration.

Being named a fellow of the society is a rare honour—there are fewer than 3,200 Fellows out of the society’s total membership of nearly 120,000. For Mitra, it is humbling—and encouraging.

“To be named a Fellow, you feel honoured that your peers recognize your research, teaching and service to the profession,” he said. “I feel even more motivated to work and excel.”