NMSU mechanical engineering professor receives second Fulbright Faculty award
The College of Engineering recently lost a highly valued faculty member with the untimely death of Igor Sevostianov. A memorial was held Sept. 3.
Sevostianov, professor in New Mexico State University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has received a 2021-2022 Fulbright Faculty Fellowship award. With funding from the U.S. Department of State-sponsored award, Sevostianov will spend the spring 2022 semester in Sofia, Bulgaria, working with colleagues from the Institute of Mechanics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
This is Sevostianov’s second Fulbright award. He spent the spring 2013 semester at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria.
“We are very pleased with the worldwide recognition and respect Dr. Sevostianov has earned over the years. His history as a great mentor and teacher, and his successful research record are a source of pride for NMSU engineering,” said Lakshmi N. Reddi, dean of the College of Engineering. “His award of the second Fulbright in his career is rare and wonderful.”
“During my stay in Bulgaria, I plan to explore my research and educational activities to advance the host institution research program, enrich their graduate curriculum and establish a sustainable long-time collaboration with my Bulgarian colleagues,” Sevostianov said. “As a broader impact, it will broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities at NMSU in the international multicultural team.
“The ultimate goal of the present research project is a development of a sustainable joint research/educational program with the Institute of Mechanics of Bulgarian Academy of Science focusing on micromechanics of defects in materials and methods of the identification of these defects,” he said. “During my stay in Sofia, I plan to develop a new methodology for this goal that will be based on the combination of cross-property connections methods established in my research group at NMSU and novel non-destructive evaluation technique developed by Professor Emil Manoach. This research will serve as the basic building block for our future joint projects. I also hope to help increase the international student exchange between the United States and Bulgaria.”
Additionally, Sevostianov has plans to offer a workshop on preparing manuscripts for professional journal publication for graduate students and young scientists while in Bulgaria. He also is planning to give presentations at multiple Bulgarian universities and in other countries in Eastern Europe such as Romania, Slovakia and Serbia.
During Sevostianov’s first Fulbright fellowship in Austria, he gave research presentations in the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Poland.
“As a result, I was able to build a strong international research team which won a big European grant in the framework of Marie Curie Actions-International Research Staff Exchange Scheme. It allowed nine European graduate students and post-docs to visit NMSU,” he said.
