From the Mines Newsroom: Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Mohsen Asle Zaeem was awarded the Ben L. Fryrear Endowed Chair for Innovation and Excellence to drive institutional change at Mines. Dr. Asle Zaeem, along with Dr. Moises Carreon, professor of chemical and biological engineering, are the seventh and eighth Mines faculty members to hold the position since it was endowed in 2017 by Mines alumnus Ben Fryrear ’62.
Each Fryrear Chair receives $25,000 in discretionary funds a year for three years in exchange for driving a strategic initiative or program that will further Mines’ vision and mission. The other sitting Fryrear Chairs are Geology and Geological Engineering’s Dr. Alexis Vavarre-Sitchler and Mechanical Engineering’s Dr. Craig Brice.
Asle Zaeem, who joined the Mines faculty in 2018, holds a PhD from Washington State University and M.S. and B.S. degrees from Shiraz University, all in mechanical engineering. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Mississippi State University in the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems and is an active member of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
At Mines, he is the principal investigator of the Computational Materials and Mechanics Laboratory, where he currently advises three postdoctoral research associates, five PhD students and three undergraduate researchers.
Asle Zaeem plans to focus his three-year Fryrear term on the creation of a postdoctoral affairs and professional training program. Carreon’s focus will be promoting and embracing diversity, inclusion and access via mentoring, scholarships and seminars.