Journeys Lecture: Nadine Aubry

December 3, 4:30 p.m.
100 Porter Hall (Gregg Hall)

Lessons from Living Life on the Boundary

Both my professional and personal life seems to have always taken place "on the boundary." In this lecture I will first discuss my own field of expertise, mechanical engineering, and describe how it lies at the crossroads of physics, mathematics, engineering and even the arts, while also being the backbone of numerous applications crucial to society including aerospace, automotive, energy, the environment, nanotechnology, bioengineering, materials, robotics, information technology, etc. I will then describe some of the contributions my own research group has made to the field, particularly at the interface between fluid mechanics (a specialty within mechanical engineering) and other academic disciplines.

I will also be looking back at my life which, very much like my technical expertise, seems to have always been at some kind of boundary. Whether it was growing up in a large metropolitan city (Paris) as well as in a rural self-sufficient farm (located in the French Loire Valley), or being a woman immersed in a male dominated engineering world, it seems I was always finding myself in some unknown territory. My life on the boundary further included immigrating to the United States, raising three children while pursuing a career, and being a faculty member/researcher and a university administrator. I will discuss how I often had the feeling of being a minority and a sense of not belonging with the upper crust. Lesson after lesson, however, I learned that this very feature of my life gave me much strength which, in retrospect, I now consider to be my most valuable asset in serving my family, my department and my profession. I hope that sharing my experiences will be helpful to today's generation of CMU diverse young women and men who may also be struggling with similar circumstances and have the feeling that they are "living life on the boundary."

About Nadine Aubry:
Professor Aubry's research is in the area of fluid dynamics. She pioneered the modeling of open flow turbulence and other complex flows and systems using advanced decomposition techniques and dynamical systems theory. Her current group's research focuses on microscale flows or microfluidics, including micromixers, droplet generators, and manipulators of particles suspended in liquids. Particularly, her team has proposed new techniques for effective mixing, droplet generation, and assembly of micro- and nano-sized neutral particles at fluid-fluid interfaces into two-dimensional arrays (monolayers).
Dr. Aubry is the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Her awards include the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and her election as Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

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