Alumni S T potligh
CELEBRATING ACCOMPLISHED GRADUATES
Rocket Scientist is ‘Penguin at Heart’ Peyman Givi ’80 Peyman Givi
“I’m what you call a rocket scientist,” says Peyman Givi, an award-winning professor of engineering, “but at my heart, I’m a Penguin.” As a research scientist grantee for NASA and the United States Air Force, he works in the fields of theoretical propulsion, turbulence and combustion. Another pending project he hopes to participate in would involve mathematical modeling in the emerging field of quantum computing. “I love my research; I love what I am doing, and I cannot imagine doing anything else,” said Givi. “I am working on amazing things.” In the 32 years since leaving the YSU campus, Givi has amassed a long list of impressive accolades and awards. He is currently the James T. Macleod Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2005, he received the NASA Public Service Medal, the agency’s highest civilian award; in 2007, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers named him Engineer of the Year in Pittsburgh; and he was selected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in May 2010, the first Pitt faculty member to earn that honor. A native of Iran, Givi arrived in the U.S. in 1977, forced abroad by the tumult of the Iranian Revolution. “I had worked hard to be accepted into the best engineering school in Iran. I really did not want to leave my country, but with all the chaos, I had no choice. I left without actually completing any courses,” he recalled. Givi first attended Iowa State University, but the rural setting did not agree with him. After a semester he came east to visit Case Western Reserve University, but a fortuitous visit to the YSU campus was his epiphinal moment. “I honestly loved the campus so much; I said, ‘I am going to go here.’” He enrolled in YSU’s mechanical engineering program.
“I knew from the age of 12 that I wanted to be a mechanical engineer,” said Givi, “so, it was really an easy choice for me. I did not speak the language well, so I gravitated to the math and engineering courses. The professors I met in those classes were some of the best I ever had; some are still friends today.” Givi recollects a vibrant campus with exceptionally friendly students. “There were lots of parties in Kilcawley with disco music – seriously, I was a good disco dancer,” he said, laughing. “That was a time to show off a bit – those are great memories.” He finished his bachelor’s degree at YSU in 1980 and moved on to Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned both a master’s and Ph.D. by 1984. Since then, his engineering career in fluid mechanics, applied mathematics, propulsion and combustion has included more than 26 years of research for NASA’s space shuttle program, as well as research for the Air Force and work as a research scientist for Flow Industries Inc. in Seattle. Another role Givi takes seriously is recruiting students into the graduate program at the University of Pittsburgh. He proudly confides that he searches for “late bloomers.” “I personally feel that GPAs and test scores don’t give the whole picture. I’ve had to write special letters for some students to get into our program. Not everyone blossoms at the same rate, and intelligence is not dependent on the university you go to; it’s dependent on how you choose to use it,” he said. “It’s a blessing to watch these people come in, do some amazing things and succeed.” Givi will be back on campus this fall as a featured speaker in the YSU Alumni Lecture Series on Thursday, Sept. 20. Martin Abraham, dean of YSU’s College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, has invited him to lecture on X-planes and supersonic transport. (See Alumni News, Page 24, for more information on the lecture series.) Profile by Robert Merz
SPRING 2012
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