January 13, 2025
By Mikey Fuller

Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has received the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) from the National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli.

This award recognizes alumni for their outstanding professional contributions and achievements in academics, research, managerial contribution, entrepreneurship, public administration, and social service. Alumni are eligible for the DAA 20 years after earning their graduate degree or 25 years after earning their undergraduate degree.

“To be recognized by my alma mater in this way is truly an honor beyond words,” Ranjan said. “I am deeply grateful for the education and experiences that shaped me, and I’m humbled to be recognized by the institution that helped lay the foundation for my journey.”

Ranjan earned a bachelor's degree from NIT-Tiruchirappalli in 2003. He joined the Woodruff School faculty in 2014 as an associate professor before eventually becoming the School’s youngest Chair.

Suresh Sitaraman, Regents' Professor and Morris M. Bryan, Jr. Professor in Mechanical Engineering in the Woodruff School, has known Ranjan as a colleague, researcher, educator, and administrator for more than 10 years. In his nomination letter, he stated that Ranjan is exceptionally deserving of the DAA in academia/research.

“Beyond such impressive research, teaching, and professional service contributions, what sets Devesh apart is his dynamism and optimism as a leader and visionary,” Sitaraman said. “He explores ideas, technologies, and funding opportunities that appear unreachable at first sight, and through his hard work, conviction, dedication, and perseverance, he makes them happen, again and again.”

Ranjan’s research focuses on the interdisciplinary area of power conversion and complex fluid flows involving shock and hydrodynamic instabilities. He also studies the turbulent mixing of materials in extreme conditions, such as supersonic and hypersonic flows. Ranjan serves as a co-director of the Department of Defense-funded University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH). The UCAH is comprised of a network of universities, including Georgia Tech, that work with government, industry, national laboratories, and federally funded research centers to deliver the innovation and workforce needed to advance modern hypersonic flight systems in support of national defense.

Guruswami Ravichandran, John E. Goode, Jr., Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, has known Ranjan for 18 years.

He describes Ranjan in his nomination letter as talented, creative, multi-faceted, and a natural leader, who has emerged as a world-renowned leader in shock tubes, turbulent mixing, and shock-driven hydrodynamic instabilities with clean energy, carbon cycle, and sustainability applications.

“I am deeply impressed by his ability to transform abstract theoretical ideas into novel experiments, enabling him to elucidate complex phenomena of physics in turbulent mixing,” Ravichandran said. “He often defines the leading edge of theory, simulation, experimentation, and practice in his fields.”

Ranjan serves as the director of the Shock Tube and Advanced Mixing Laboratory, and his research group has published more than 100 research articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. During his career, he has mentored more than 25 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and has received numerous awards for his educational efforts and mentorship activity. He has served as a Provost’s Teaching and Learning Fellow, a Governor’s Teaching Fellow, and a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Fellow.

Ranjan was formally recognized with the DAA on January 11 in India. At the ceremony, he announced an endowment in his mother's name to support female students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.