Owl - Fall 2011

              TABLE OF CONTENTS
New professor named........................1
Gifts and Grants.................................2
Robotics donation..............................2
Commencement 2011........................3
Innovation event................................4
Profile: Christina Klecker...................5
NASA event inspires...........................6
Math & Science awards.....................7
Inventors converge.............................7
Dean’s Letter.....................................8
www.fairfield.edu/engineering
Fall 2011
Clare Boothe Luce professor named
Fairfield welcomes a promising new profes­sor this fall, thanks to a $404,439 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Clare Boothe Luce Program.
Dr. Shanon Reckinger, who will receive her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder in August, will join the Mechanical Engineering faculty, teaching fluid dynamics and numerical methods at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
“For my undergrad education, I attended University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities,” Dr. Reckinger said. “It is a school very similar to Fairfield in many ways. It is where I learned to appreciate the liberal arts education. I was able to experience first hand the benefits of small class size, hands-on learning, and a university’s commitment to excellent teaching. I am honored to be part of the faculty at Fairfield and excited to contribute to our future generations’ education.”
The grant that made Dr. Reckinger’s posi­tion possible comes at a time when the need for more young people carving out careers in the sciences and engineering – especially women – has become more urgent in the United States. It was specifically earmarked for Mechanical Engineering, the largest department in the School. “Fairfield is poised to provide a supportive environment where the talents of the new scholar will be nurtured,” said University President Jeffrey P. von Arx, S.J. “We envision the Clare Boothe Luce Professor excelling in her professional development here, inspiring stu­dents along the way.”
Dr. Reckinger has been a co-instructor and teaching assistant at the University of Colorado, where she also earned her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Her profes­sional research experience includes work as a research assistant at the Los Alamos National Research Lab in New Mexico. Her research focus is developing numerical methods for computational fluid dynam­ics and her thesis focused on improving numerical methods used in ocean circula­tion models, work she hopes to continue at Fairfield. She also hopes to branch out to some related experimental and observa­tional work.
The professorship is a tenure-track posi­tion, and Dr. Reckinger will enter at the rank of assistant professor. The grant will be distributed over five years, supplement­ed with funds from Fairfield, beginning this fall. The University is committed to perma­nently sustaining this professorship after the initial grant funding is completed.
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
continued on page 5
A PUBLICATION OF THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
Dr. Shanon Reckinger