Heat Transfer Engineering, 24(2):1–2, 2003
C 2003 Taylor & Francis
Copyright °0145–7632/03 $12.00 + .00
DOI: 10.1080/01457630390116202

editorialLeaders in ThermalEvolution — Heat Transfer
Research Laboratories
in Academic Institutions
SATISH G. KANDLIKAR
Heat in History Editor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Rochester Institute of Technology,Rochester, New York

Research and innovation in heat transfer technology is closely linked with technological advancement in other scientific and technical fields. Compact heat exchanger surfaces were developed inresponse to the increasing demands from the automotive, aviation, and air separation industries. The robust shell and tube heat exchangers that have served
faithfully as the workhorse of chemical, power generation, and process industries for over a century arebeing challenged by plate-and-frame and heliflow heatexchangers to meet the growing need for compactness, low maintenance, and flexibility in design andoperation. Although actual product development often
takes place in industrial settings, new concepts based onsolid theory generally emerge from academic researchlaboratories.
Over the past century, academic heat transfer laboratories played a key role in transforming the field of heattransfer into a science, formulating concepts derived
from sound mathematical treatment and tested throughcarefully planned and conducted experiments. The creative minds of graduate students toiled in these fertile
grounds, and they went on to become the architects of
new products in industry.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has beena major contributor to this technological transformation.
The article featured in the Heat in History Departmentof this issue provides us with a historical perspective of
the heat transfer laboratory at MIT, with glimpses of itschanging focus in response to the industry needs, and theinner workings from its formation to the current state.
Professor John H. Lienhard V presents an interestingroadmap of this laboratory, aptly named after one of theleading researchers of our times, Professor Warren M.
Rohsenow.
We hope to present articles related to other academic
and industrial research laboratories in the future as a partof the Heat in History Department offerings. We recognize that the path to the future invariably goes throughthe historical neighborhoods.

Address correspondence to Dr. Satish G. Kandlikar, Mechanical Engineering Department, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
14623, USA. E-mail: sgkeme@rit.edu

1Satish Kandlikar is a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at RIT for lasttwenty-two years. He received his Ph.D. from theIndian Institute of Technology in Bombay in 1975
and has been a faculty member there before coming to RIT in 1980. His research is mainly focusedin the area of flow boiling. After investigating the flow boiling phenomena

2

heat transfer engineeringfrom an empirical standpoint, which resulted in widely accepted correlations
for different geometries, he started to look at the problem from a fundamental perspective. Using high-speed photography techniques, he demonstrated
that small bubbles are released at a high frequency under flow conditions.
He is also working in the area of binary flow boiling and bubble formation
in inkjet printing application. He has given a number of invited and keynote
talks nationally and internationally.

vol. 24 no. 2 2003