June 13, 2017
A three-time mechanical engineering graduate of Michigan State University has been named a fellow of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Sandia National Laboratories researcher Kevin Dowding (BS '89, MS '93, PhD '97, MECH EGR) was honored for developing advanced standards for computational modeling in nuclear weapon design.
Dowding received a bachelor’s degree in 1989, a master’s degree in 1993, and a PhD degree in 1997, all in mechanical engineering at MSU.
Dowding has made significant technical and leadership contributions to national security by developing computational modeling for nuclear weapon design. He has served as the technical lead to integrate computational modeling for the design and qualification of Sandia’s B61 life extension program and pioneered computational approaches for understanding and measuring margins and uncertainty in abnormal thermal environments.
Dowding is a founding member and co-author of the verification and validation standard released by the ASME Committee for Verification and Validation of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer. He has been a reviewer for more than 10 journals and the National Science Foundation.
Dowding was one of four recently honored at Sandia National Lab.
Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers make up only 3.1 percent of ASME’s 107,895 members.
