Adrian Bejan is a Romanian-American professor who has made contributions to modern thermodynamics and developed the constructal law. He is J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University The Physics of Life , Freedom and Evolution and Time And Beauty. He is an Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal and the ASME Medal.

Early life and education

Bejan was born in Galaţi, a city on the Danube in Romania.

His mother, Marioara Bejan (1914–1998), was a pharmacist.

At age 19 Bejan won a scholarship to the United States and entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He graduated in 1975 with a PhD from MIT a thesis titled "Improved thermal design of the cryogenic cooling system for a superconducting synchronous generator". His advisor was Joseph L. Smith Jr., a disciple of Prof. Joseph H. Keenan.

Career

From 1976 to 1978 Bejan was a Miller research fellow in at the University of California Berkeley working with Chang-Lin Tien.

In 1989 Bejan was appointed the J. A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering. In 1988 and 1989, his peers named two dimensionless groups Bejan number (Be), in two different fields: for the pressure difference group, in heat transfer by forced convection, and for the dimensionless ratio of fluid friction irreversibility divided by heat transfer irreversibility, in thermodynamics. As an example, for electronic components too small for convective cooling, they must be designed for efficient conduction. The 1995 paper provides a method for efficiently designing conductive paths, from smaller paths leading to larger ones. The similarity of the solution to the branching structures seen in multiple inanimate and living things led to his statement of what he calls a new law of nature: "For a finite-size system to persist in time (to live), it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed (global) currents that flow through it."

Bejan incorporated his constructal law into the second edition of his textbook, Advanced Engineering Thermodynamics (1997).

Awards for Constructal Law

In 2011 the American Society of Mechanical Engineers presented him with an honorary membership. He was cited for "an extraordinary record of creative work, including the unification of thermodynamics and heat transfer; the conceptual development of design as a science that unites all fields; legendary contributions to engineering education; and, since 1996, the discovery and continued development of the constructal law." He was cited for "permanent contributions to the public appreciation of the pivotal role of engineering in an advanced society through outstanding accomplishments as an engineering scientist and educator, renowned communicator and prolific writer".

In November 2017 the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia announced that Bejan would be awarded the 2018 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Mechanical Engineering. He was cited for "his pioneering interdisciplinary contributions in thermodynamics and convection heat transfer that have improved the performance of engineering systems, and for constructal theory, which predicts natural design and its evolution in engineering, scientific, and social systems."

On 27 June 2019, in Berlin, the Humboldt Foundation awarded Bejan the Humboldt Research Award for lifetime achievement. He was cited for "his pioneering contributions to modern thermodynamics and "Constructal Law" – a law of physics that predicts natural design and its evolution in biology, geophysics, climate change, technology, social organization, evolutionary design and development, wealth and sustainability".

On 30 December 2019, in Ankara, the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) awarded Bejan the TÜBA International Academy Prize in the category of Basic and Engineering Sciences "for his remarkable number of creative works such as combining thermodynamics and heat transfer in the field of thermodynamics, developing design as a science that brings together all fields, and putting forth "Constructal Theory".

On 20 February 2020, in Durham, the French government awarded Bejan the title of Knight of the French Order of Academic Palms.

On 18 July 2021, the International Association for Green Energy (IAGE) gave Bejan the IAGE Lifetime Achievement Award “For revolutionary contributions to thermal sciences through entropy generation minimization and the original development of a new law in physics, the constructal law, for predicting natural design and its evolution as climate, social ecosystems, and sustainability.”

In September 2023, peers from many countries reviewed Bejan's scholarly legacy on the occasion of his 75th birthday.

In April 2024, Duke University honored Bejan for excellence in teaching and research.

On 26 August 2024, Adrian Bejan was named the 2024 recipient of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Medal. The award, established in 1920, is the highest award that the Society can bestow and recognizes eminently distinguished engineering achievement. Bejan is honored for “unprecedented creativity, breadth, and permanent impact on engineering; for developments in the new science of energy, motion, form, and evolution; and for building bridges to design in biological, geophysical, and sociological systems. Bejan is credited with several groundbreaking developments. He unified thermodynamics with heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and the science of form (i.e., flow configuration, image, design), as a counterweight to the doctrine of reductionism; discovered, taught, and applied the Constructal Law of evolution in nature; and brought together biologists, physicists, engineers, sociologists, philosophers, economists, managers, and athletes with creative books for the public, including Design in Nature (2012), The Physics of Life (2016), Freedom and Evolution (2020), and Time and Beauty (2022). His influential work and prolific publication record have earned him 18 honorary doctorates from 11 countries. He holds a position among the top 0.01% of most-cited and impactful scientists, is the sixth most impactful scholar in mechanical engineering worldwide, and the 11th across all engineering disciplines, according to the citations impact database in PLOS Biology.”

At a public ceremony on 9 October 2024 in Bucharest, the Romanian Basketball Federation conferred upon Prof. Bejan the Title of Excellence: "For promoting the role of sport in achieving excellence in academia, and his remarkable contributions to combining science and sport, embodying in his career as physicist and basketball player an exceptional synergy between the laws of physics and the dynamics of sport. Through his innovative studies and the applicability of constructal theory in the field of movement, he opened new horizons for understanding and optimizing performance in sport in general, and in basketball in particular. The Romanian Basketball Federation recognizes his academic excellence and the impact he had on the evolution of basketball from a scientific and educational perspective."

Selected awards and honors

Bejan has received multiple awards and honorary degrees.

  • Ralph Coats Roe Award, American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), 2000
  • Benjamin Franklin Medal, Franklin Institute, 2018
  • Turkish Academy of Sciences Prize (2019)

Selected publications

;Articles

  • Bejan, Adrian "Entropy Generation Minimization: The New Thermodynamics of Finite-Size Devices and Finite-Time Processes," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 79, 1 February 1996, pp. 1191–1218.
  • A. Bejan, U. Gunes and B. Sahin, University Rankings: Quality, Size and Permanence, European Review, Vol. 28, 2020, pp. 537-558. doi: 10.1017/S106279872000006X
  • A. Bejan, Perfection is the enemy of evolution, BioSystems, Vol. 229, 2023, 104917. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2023.104917
  • A. Bejan, The principle underlying all evolution, biological, geophysical, social and technological, Philosophical Transactions A, Vol. 381, 2023, 20220288. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2022.0288
  • A. Bejan, Vascular flow design and predicting evolution, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 155, 2024, 107517. doi: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2024.107517
  • A. Bejan, H. Almahmoud, U. Gunes, H.E. Fakhari and P. Mardanpour, Evolution and irreversibility: Two distinct phenomena and their distinct laws of nature, Physics of Life Reviews, Vol. 50, 2024, pp.103-116. doi: 10.1016/j.plrev.2024.06.014
  • A. Bejan, The Physics of the Urge to Have Freedom, BioSystems, Vol. 243, 2024, 105277. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2024.105277
  • A. Bejan, Energy store & release facilitating movement in stick & slip friction, animal jump, and earthquake, Scientific Reports, Vol. 14, 2024, 18832. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-68525-1

;Books

  • , updated in 1995, 2004, and 2013:
  • , updated in 1997, 2006, and 2016:
  • , updated in 1999, 2006, 2017:
  • Bejan, Adrian (2020). Freedom and Evolution: Hierarchy in Nature, Society and Science. New York: Springer. .
  • Bejan, Adrian (2022). Time And Beauty: Why Time Flies And Beauty Never Dies. World Scientific. .
  • Bejan, Adrian (2022). Heat Transfer: Evolution, Design and Performance. Wiley. .

References

  • Faculty web page