Student Spotlight

Mark Melikian was selected as the sole SDSU representative to the Western Association of Graduate Schools/ProQuest annual awards competition. This is the first year SDSU has participated, and Mark was chosen over all the applicants from SDSU in all STEM fields, not just engineering. Mark's Master's thesis, entitled "On the Modeling of Carbon Particle Oxidation and its Effect on Temperature Distribution in a Small Particle Solar Receiver," represents a significant advance in the predictive capability of a high-temperature solar receiver model that has been under development for a little over a decade in the Combustion and Solar Energy Laboratory directed by Prof. Fletcher Miller. Mark's contributions to the challenging coupling between particle oxidation, solar absorption, and radiation heat transfer will allow more realistic simulations of receiver performance, helping towards the ultimate goal of designing a large-scale receiver and testing it at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility in New Mexico.  Mark began his research and computational modeling from home during the pandemic shut-down while working remotely part time for Solar Turbines. As the pandemic restrictions waned he became a full-time student in the lab, and now works at Antora Energy, Inc., a successful start-up focussing on high temperature thermal storage for utilities and industry. Mark is passionate about reducing fossil fuel use and carbon emissions and reports that he uses the skills and knowledge he gained at SDSU frequently in his job in the green energy sector.