George Nnanna, Ph.D., P.E., ASME Fellow

Professor George Nnanna is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Commissioner for the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET), Fulbright Specialist, and a Licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Indiana. He is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Founding Director of the School of Engineering at University of Missouri Saint Louis. He has held numerous leadership, administrative and research positions including Director of the Texas Water and Energy Institute, Founding Dean of the College of Engineering at The University of Texas Permian, Department Head of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, and Founding Director of the Purdue University Water Institute at Purdue University Northwest in Indiana.

His research is focused on Water and Energy, two of the 14 grand challenges of the 21st century identified by the National Academy of Engineers. His research includes mineral extraction from brine, floating nanoporous membrane for evaporation enhancement, nanofluidics, nanoparticle-enabled photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical contaminants in water, plasmonic metasurface nanostructure-enabled solar energy harvesting for steam generation and water purification, cooling of data centers and buildings, and micro-heat exchanger and mini-refrigerator for electronics cooling and thermoelectric application.

Professor Nnanna holds 5 US Patents, Best paper and 12 research awards, and 206 technical articles in journals, conference proceedings, and presentations, including a publication in Nature Nanotechnology. His work has been cited over 2200 times. He has generated over $14 million in externally funded projects from various agencies including National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and industry.  George is a member of the US Department of Energy Produced Water Optimization Stakeholder Board, Texas Produced Water Consortium, and Permian Energy Development Lab. He served on the Editorial Board of Heat Transfer in Engineering Journal, Expert Panelist for the government of Chile through the National Commission Scientific and Technological Research, and as Lead Panelist on NSF EPSCoR Project Reverse Site Visit.

Professor Nnanna completed leadership programs at the Oxford Executive Leadership Program at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from The University of Texas at Arlington, and B.S. degree from Texas Tech University. All degrees are in Mechanical Engineering.