Richmond Leader

Provost reflects on career journey in light of prestigious engineering award

With the Acropolis and other classical ancient Greek ruins just a short walk from Fotis Sotiropoulos’ childhood home in Athens, it’s easy to understand why he wanted to be an archaeologist early on. But after discovering his love of mathematics in high school, the path he chose was mechanical engineering, a field that has served him well.

So well in fact, that the American Society of Mechanical Engineers recently bestowed Sotiropoulos, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, with the prestigious Fluids Engineering Award, honoring outstanding contributions to the engineering profession, particularly the field of fluids engineering through research, practice and/or teaching.

“It is a great pleasure for me to congratulate Provost Sotiropoulos on this prestigious honor,” said Michael Rao, Ph.D., president of VCU and VCU Health. “He has demonstrated tremendous skills as a thoughtful leader at VCU, a talented and accomplished engineer, and a person with a wonderful heart. This award recognizes his years of exceptional contributions to the field of fluids engineering. We are all exceptionally proud of him and pleased by how this reflects so well on VCU.”

Sotiropoulos was “beyond humbled” when he learned he was being honored.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think when I started my career that one day I would receive this award,” Sotiropoulos said. “The names of past award recipients comprise the pantheon of many scientific giants in my field of research, individuals I idolized and read their books and papers as a young aspiring researcher. In fact, some of my most important mentors have received this award, like my very first Ph.D. adviser, my postdoctoral supervisor and the person who offered me my very first job when I graduated with my Ph.D.”

The award means a lot to Sotiropoulos, but it’s not only about him, he said.

“I could not have accomplished this without the contributions of so many brilliant students, postdocs and collaborators I had the privilege to mentor and work with during my career,” he said. “This award belongs to all of them as much as it belongs to me.”

Original source can be found here