Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA. Olin College is a new undergraduate engineering institution with a focus on design and entrepreneurship. Dr. Townsend teaches several of the mechanical engineering core courses at and also advises student design teams in Olin’s Senior Capstone program. Her current research interests include development and characterization of engineered fluids (nanofluids) for electronics cooling applications. Dr. Townsend received her Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT, where she developed evaporatively cooled turbine blades for advanced aircraft engines. Prior to returning to school for her doctorate, she spent three years in industry as an aerospace performance engineer at Hamilton Sundstrand Power Systems.