Biography:
Dr. Brandon Rotavera is an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia, with appointments in both the Department of Chemistry and the College of Engineering (rotavera.uga.edu). Dr. Rotavera is also a Distinguished Fellow of the SVRC, the Student Veterans Resource Center at UGA, which consistently ranks in the Top 5 of Tier 1 Research Universities for supporting student veterans and offers wide-ranging programs, advocacy, and professional development opportunities. Prior to arriving at UGA, Dr. Rotavera held a Postdoctoral Appointee position with Dr. Craig A. Taatjes at Sandia National Laboratories after completing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Engineering from Texas A&M University with Prof. Eric L. Petersen in 2012, and was a visiting Research Scholar at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Orléans, France working with Dr. Philippe Dagaut. As 1 of 22 delegates during the last Congressional visitation day, Dr. Rotavera represented the Combustion Institute in meetings with the staff of 40 members of Congress from 13 U.S. states. The main theme the delegation communicated was the essential role of federal funding for combustion research and education. The delegation also shared their scientific expertise about the benefits of combustion research, including the impact on topics of national interest such as energy independence, climate, and the economy.
Vision Statement:
Combustion remains a critically important area of research that continues to utilize fundamental science and engineering to impact a broad range of applications in society. Examples include improvements in efficiency and emissions reductions in transportation systems, better understanding of explosions and fire protection engineering, nanomaterial synthesis, catalysis, and diagnostic and sensor development. With the advent of new energy challenges, defined largely by increasing demand for energy and concerns for mitigation of climate impact, the activities of the Combustion Institute and, by extension, the Eastern States Section, play a pivotal role in solving globally relevant problems.
Two elements that are central to solving such problems, while simultaneously growing the impact of our research community, should include: (1) targeted coordination with local educational institutions; (2) continued investment in young combustion scientists in our Section through mentoring and professional development. The first effort could be supported by awarding grants to high school teachers for proposals to develop and introduce a combustion science-based learning module into their course curricula. The second effort could be achieved by creating a pilot funding program for supporting student exchange within member institutions of our Section that involves a competitive proposal review process in which prospective students compose a short proposal that is accompanied by letters of support from the principal investigators involved, i.e. the Ph.D. advisor of the student and the PI of the host laboratory.