Baki Cetegen

United Technologies Chair Professor

Dr. Cetegen joined the Mechanical Engineering Department in 1987. Prior to that, he was a research fellow at the University of California, Irvine and a research engineer and group leader at Energy and Environmental Research Corporation, Irvine, CA. He received his B.S. degree (summa cum laude) from Bosphorous University in Istanbul, Turkey (1978), M.S. from University of California, Berkeley (1979) and Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology (1982) in mechanical engineering.

He has been a Visiting Research Scientist at the Center for Laser Diagnostics at Yale University (1994) and the Laboratoire Energetique Moleculaire et Macroscopique Combustion at Ecole Centrale de Paris (2002). Dr. Cetegen’s research is in the general areas of experimental combustion and fluid dynamics with emphasis on laser diagnostics and optical imaging. His many research projects included dynamics  and limit behavior of turbulent premixed flames, thermodynamics of rotating detonations, heat transfer and phase change in rotating flows, thermal spray process characterization by non-intrusive optical measurements and modeling, non-intrusive optical diagnostics for PEM fuel cells, fluid dynamics of buoyant plumes, flames and fire research. Dr. Cetegen’s research has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, DARPA, Army Research Office, NASA, Connecticut Innovations Inc., Connecticut Department of Transportation, UTC Pratt & Whitney and other industries.

He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Eastern Section of the Combustion Institute since 1995 and served as its treasurer (1999-2007), vice chairman (2007-2009) and the chairman (2009-2011). He is a member of the Combustion Institute, Fellow of ASME and honorary member of Pi Tau Sigma. He served as the head of the mechanical engineering department from 2006 to 2015. He is an elected member of Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) and was elected to serve as its Vice President and President Elect (2016-2018), President (2018-2020) and Past President (2020-2022).