Boise State assistant professor Inanc Senocak has received the National Science Foundation's top award for early career faculty. Senocak, who works in the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, was honored with the $400,000 CAREER Award which recognizes individuals who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.
“Dr. Senocak is an exemplary faculty member, combining impressive work in the lab with engagement of students and community members in technical subjects that affect our lives and will shape the future,” said College of Engineering Interim Dean Amy Moll. “The CAREER Award is a fitting acknowledgement of his outstanding qualities and growing reputation in the field.”
Senocak is the seventh Boise State professor to receive a CAREER award, joining Susan Burkett (electrical and computer engineering), Megan Frary (materials science and engineering), Wan Kuang (electrical and computer engineering), John Lusth (computer science), Alex Punnoose (physics) and Elisa Barney Smith (electrical and computer engineering). and engineering) and Wan Kuang (electrical and computer engineering).
Senocak earned a mechanical engineering degree at the Middle East Technical University in Turkey and received his master's and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Florida. Senocak has held postdoctoral research positions at the Center for Turbulence Research (jointly operated by NASA and Stanford University) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Senocak has focused on the atmosphere, from using supercomputers to simulate the physical processes that occur in its boundary layer to reconstructing the dispersion of airborne threats. Senocak will use the CAREER Award funding to increasing the utilization of wind energy resources for electricity production.
“Increasing the percentage of wind energy in overall electricity generation is much more sophisticated than simply installing wind farms in windy areas with complex terrain,” Senocak said. “The overall goal of this research is to better understand the characteristics of turbulent flows through complex terrain under different atmospheric conditions so that available wind power can be reliably forecast and integrated onto the grid.”
The supercomputing and 3D visualization aspects of the project will be used to motivate student interest in the computational sciences and bolster laboratory resources in fluid mechanics courses at Boise State. In addition, a supercomputing booth will be developed for use in K-12 outreach programs, with hands-on exercises for modeling and simulation of wind and visualization of scientific data and high-resolution imagery from Earth and space.
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