Van P. Carey
A. Richard Newton Chair in Engineering
Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Email: vpcarey@berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 642-7177
Office: 6123 Etcheverry Hall
Professor Carey is widely recognized for his research on near-interface micro- and nanoscale thermophysics and transport in liquid-vapor systems, and computational modeling and simulation of energy conversion and transport processes. His research has frequently included modeling at multiple scales, ranging from the molecular level (molecular dynamics simulation of thermophysics) to the device and system level (multidevice system models). His research is also exploring the use of machine learning strategies to enhance performance of energy conversion and transport in applications, and create energy technologies that can autonomously adapt to maximize their performance and reduce their environmental impact.
Since joining the Berkeley faculty in 1982, Professor Carey’s research has spanned a variety of applications areas, including high performance solar thermal power systems, building and vehicle air conditioning, smelting and casting of aluminum, phase change thermal energy storage, heat pipes for aerospace applications, high heat flux cooling of electronics, data center thermal management, and energy efficiency of digital information systems. His research has contributed to developing advanced heat rejection technologies for electronics cooling, building AC systems, and power plants, and he has developed performance models for Tesla turbine expanders for green energy conversion technologies and thermionic power generation technologies for space applications.
Carey’s current research emphasizes development of strategies to use machine learning tools to better understand and model flame spread processes in electronic systems and the physics of boiling heat transfer at surfaces covered with hydrophilic nanostructured coatings. This includes exploring innovative ways to combine advanced instrumentation data and machine learning image analysis to understand the physics of boiling processes. He is also using machine learning tools to enhance performance modeling of energy conversion devices, and developing machine-learning-based adaptive energy conversion systems that can autonomously adjust their operation to simultaneously maximize energy efficiency and meet operating requirements for the application of interest.
Carey is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he has also served as the Chair of the Heat Transfer Division of ASME. Carey received the James Harry Potter Gold Medal in 2004 for his eminent achievement in thermodynamics, and the Heat Transfer Memorial Award in the Science category (2007) from the ASME. Carey is also a three-time recipient of the Hewlett Packard Research Innovation Award for his research on electronics thermal management and energy efficiency (2008, 2009, and 2010), and he received the 2014 Thermophysics Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
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To view a list of Professor Carey’s publications, please visit the Energy and Multiphase Transport Laboratory website.