UCLA Engineering Professor Named Editor-in-Chief of Major Scientific Journal

Timothy Fisher, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been named editor-in-chief of the ASME Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The influential journal covers topics in fundamental research in thermal energy or mass transfer.

Two other UCLA mechanical and aerospace engineering professors previously served as editor-in-chief of the journal. Fisher is immediately preceded by UCLA alumnus and distinguished adjunct professor Portonovo Ayyaswamy who took the helm from 2015 to 2023, initially while teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Distinguished professor and former UCLA Samueli dean Vijay Dhir held the position from 2000 to 2004.

At UCLA, Fisher holds the John P. and Claudia H. Schauerman Endowed Chair in Engineering and leads the Nanoscale Transport Research Group. His research focuses on transport processes by electrons, phonons, photons and fluids, with applications in aerospace, energy, micro- and nanoelectronics manufacturing and sensor systems.

Fisher joined the UCLA faculty in 2017 and served as the chair of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department from 2018 to 2022. He is the project investigator on a grant from aerospace accelerator SCALE, a U.S. Commerce Department-funded collaboration between UCLA and global aerospace and defense accelerator Starburst to create an innovation hub in Los Angeles.

Prior to UCLA, Fisher was on the faculty of Purdue University, where he held the James G. Dwyer Professorship in Mechanical Engineering. He is a fellow of ASME and received the society’s Heat Transfer Memorial Award in 2018.