Hawkins Lecture
The Hawkins Memorial Lecture
The Power of Partnerships in Advancing Fundamental Research and Technology
Suresh Garimella, 23rd President of the University of Arizona and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
4:00 p.m. • WALC B066
Abstract: I will trace a bit of my own unexpected journey through various roles as a university educator and researcher, in government and in science and technology policy, and in higher education leadership including engagement, global affairs, research and partnerships, and presidency. At a time of unprecedented transformation in higher education and in federal funding avenues in particular, I will share my experience with building a long-standing and resilient industry consortium for thermal management that has stood the test of time and offers a robust model for conducting fundamental research and supporting student mentorship and training, while making lasting contributions to technology advancement. This work reveals the profound power of partnerships. So much of the challenge in electronics thermal management comes from the resistances to transport at solid, liquid and gas interfaces, and our Cooling Technologies Research Center has worked over nearly three decades to overcome these resistances. I will highlight how the Center came into being, the challenges in establishing a common understanding of precompetitive research and its goals among fierce competitors, and the very significant contributions that emerged from this work, including a cohort of fantastic graduates who are the Center’s true legacy. I will illustrate the nature of the research we conducted by elaborating on the work done through a large DARPA project as one example. Rapid leaps in AI, biomedicine, space sciences and national security applications have only further underlined the critical need for thermal management in enabling these advances.
Biography: Suresh Garimella is the 23rd president of the University of Arizona and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Previously, he was president of the University of Vermont (UVM) from 2019 to 2024. At Purdue University, he served as the Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships. Throughout his career, Garimella has emphasized the importance of access and affordability for students, and he has worked to promote excellence in the student learning experience. A highly cited scholar and passionate educator, he has mentored more than 90 graduate students and 50 post-doctoral scholars, 31 of whom are placed in prestigious faculty positions across the world. Garimella has made seminal contributions to the field of electronics thermal management and energy efficiency at micro and nano scales, and in sustainable energy systems technology and policy. He is co-author of more than 625 refereed publications and 16 issued patents and is an elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Garimella also has made important contributions to national and international policy. He has served on the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation and acts as an independent body of advisers to both the President and Congress on policy matters related to science and engineering. He also chairs the research board of Sandia National Laboratories, is a member of the board of directors at Modine Manufacturing and the executive committee for the Council on Competitiveness, and he previously served as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. Department of State and as Senior Fellow for Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas.
History of the Hawkins Lecture
This annual lecture series was established in 1984 to honor the memory of George A. Hawkins, former Dean of the Schools of Engineering. Renowned for his many contributions as a teacher, researcher, and administrator, he retained a strong commitment to heat transfer and was instrumental in establishing Purdue’s eminence in the field. The lecture provides an opportunity for a leader in heat transfer research to present topics of broad interest to the University community. This series is supported by an endowment created with gifts from the Heat Transfer Area faculty at Purdue.
George A. Hawkins was born in Denver, Colorado in 1907. He attended the Colorado School of Mines and the University of Denver before coming to Purdue where he received three degrees. Dr. Hawkins earned his Ph.D. in 1935 and began an academic career that spanned 41 years. Promoted to Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1942, he was Dean of the Schools of Engineering from 1953 to 1967 and Vice President of Academic Affairs from 1967 until his retirement in 1971. In addition to his administrative duties, he continued with technical pursuits, writing several textbooks and more than 150 papers and articles dealing with heat transfer, thermodynamics, and other engineering areas.
For his technical, professional, and administrative contributions, he received many honors, including election as member of the National Academy of Engineering, Life Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and Honorary Member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He received the ASME/Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal in 1940. As dean, he was instrumental in effecting major changes in engineering education throughout the U.S., and was awarded the ASEE Medal for Distinguished and Meritorious Service in 1968. He was named National President of ASEE in 1970.
One of his strongest professional commitments was to the subject of heat transfer, and he had an important influence on establishing Purdue as a world leader in this area. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was, with William McAdams on the East Coast, M. Jakob in the Midwest, and L.M.K. Boelter on the West Coast, a major force in promoting the transition of heat transfer from an engineering art to a modern form of engineering strongly based on scientific fundamentals. His early work as a pioneer of heat transfer is well-documented. His program flourished, producing many outstanding graduate students who have enjoyed successful careers in industry, academia, and government.
Following his retirement in 1971, Dr. Hawkins continued to be active until his death in 1978.
Past Speakers
2024 Van P. Carey, University of California at Berkeley
2023 Chao-Yang Wang, Pennsylvania State University
2022 Samuel Graham, University of Maryland
2021 John Bischof, University of Minnesota
2021 Cristina Amon, University of Toronto
2019 Cynthia Hipwell, Texas A&M University
2018 Costas P. Grigoropoulos, University of California Berkeley
2017 Mehmet Toner, Harvard Medical School (photo)
2016 Suhas V. Patankar, University of Minnesota
2015 Kenneth E. Goodson, Stanford University
2014 Jean-Jacques Greffet, Institute Optique Palaiseau-France
2013 Jayathi Murthy, Purdue University
2012 Gang Chen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2011 Chung K. Law, Princeton University
2010 Arun Majumdar, U.S. Department of Energy
2009 Mamoru Ishii, School of Nuclear Engineering, Purdue University
2008 Paul Hommert, California Laboratories and Homeland Security & Defense Strategic Management Unit, Sandia National Laboratories
2007 Richard O. Buckius, National Science Foundation and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2006 Yogesh Jaluria, Rutgers University
2005 Massoud Kaviany, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
2004 Dimos Poulikakos, ETH Zurich
2003 John H. Sununu, JHS Associates, Ltd.
2002 Kenneth R. Diller, University of Texas - Austin
2001 Martin C. Jischke, Purdue University
2000 Robert G. Watts, Tulane University
1999 Vijay K. Dhir, University of California - Los Angeles
1998 David P. DeWitt, Purdue University
1997 Boris Rubinsky, University of California - Berkeley
1996 Frank P. Incropera, Purdue University
1995 John R. Howell, University of Texas - Austin
1994 Julian Szekely, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1993 Robert Siegel, NASA Lewis Research Center
1992 Richard C. Chu, International Business Machines Corporation
1991 R. J. Goldstein, University of Minnesota
1990 Raymond Viskanta, Purdue University
1989 Franz Mayinger, Technische Universität München
1988 Wataru Nakayama, Hitachi, Ltd.
1987 Chang-Lin Tien, University of California - Berkeley
1986 Arthur E. Bergles, Iowa State University
1985 E. M. Sparrow, University of Minnesota
1984 Ernst R. G. Eckert, University of Minnesota
