The 2019 Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar: Dr. Jeff Darabi, Professor and Graduate Program Director, Department of Mechanical Engineering
The Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar award is presented to an SIUE faculty member who has been recognized as an outstanding teacher and research scholar. The award demonstrates the belief that to be a good teacher, one must also be a good scholar. Winners of the Outstanding Teacher-Scholar award have shown significant contributions to original research or creative activities, and have successfully integrated those contributions into their teaching practices.
Dr. Darabi’s research interests are in the areas of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS),
Micro/Nanofluidics, Biomicrofluidics, Energy and thermal systems, and Multiphysics modeling. His research in these areas has resulted in over 80 publications including 32 Journal articles, 39 peer-reviewed conference papers, 2 book chapters, 7 book reviews, 4 issued and pending US patents, and over 50 technical presentations. Nearly 60 of his publications are co-authored with his students. The quality and impact of his research and scholarly work are widely recognized. According to Google Scholar, at the time of this writing, his publications have been cited 1329 times in all and 519 times since 2014. He has supervised and chaired MS thesis of 19 students and Ph.D. dissertation of 2 students and served as a committee member on 32 MS and 8 PhD committees. He has also provided research experiences to over 20 undergraduate students. More than half of his MS students have gone on to obtain Ph.D. at other universities including UC Berkeley and Purdue University. All other students are gainfully employed by various companies. Over the course of his academic career, Dr. Darabi has served as PI or Co-PI on 19 research grants totaling approximately one million dollars. Dr. Darabi established a MEMS and Microfluidics Laboratory (MML) in the ME department and developed a research program in these emerging and multi-disciplinary fields that did not previously exist at SIUE.
Dr. Darabi constantly incorporates material relevant to his research into his teaching to ensure that students can see and make meaningful connections with real world applications. To expand elective and graduate course offerings in the ME department, he developed and taught two new courses entitled ME 442 - Microelectromechanical Systems and ME 592 - Micro/Nanofluidics. These courses are the basis for graduate research in MEMS and Microfluidics and were created to ensure that students stay up-to-date with the latest developments in these emerging fields. He has also restructured traditional ME 310 -Thermodynamics I and ME 312 - Thermodynamics II courses by integrating practice-oriented studio sessions into these courses that focus on active and cooperative learning. He is a strong proponent of using technology-based teaching tools and routinely augments his courses with a variety of technology tools. Dr. Darabi has the respect and admiration of students and colleagues and has been praised for his in-depth knowledge, thoughtful rigor, profound wisdom, indispensable guidance, effective mentoring, and generous devotion to his students and their success.
Dr. Darabi has also been very active in National and International Conferences and organized and chaired technical sessions at ASME and IEEE Conferences. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of Heat Transfer Engineering Journal. In recognition of his dedication to excellence in scholarship, teaching, and service, he has received numerous awards. Most recently, he has been named Outstanding Teacher in the Mechanical Engineering Department in 2014 and 2017 and Outstanding Researcher in 2013 and 2016.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Jeff Darabi, the 2019 Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Award recipient, on his remarkable achievements.
