Mehdi Ahmadian, the Dan Pletta Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, is the recipient of the 2014 Society of Automotive Engineers' International L. Ray Buckendale Lecture Award.

Ahmadian received the award at the society's 2014 Commercial Vehicle Engineering Congress, held in Rosemont, Illinois, for his research was on the integration of electromechanical systems in commercial vehicles for improved handling, safety, and comfort.

The award provides for an annual lecture dealing with automotive ground vehicles for either on- or off-road operation in either commercial or military service. The intent is to provide useful procedures and data for finding solutions to commercial vehicle design, manufacture, operation, and maintenance.

Ahmadian holds the position of director of the Center for Vehicle Systems and Safety and the Railway Technologies Laboratory at Virginia Tech, both of which he founded. He is the founding director of the Virginia Institute for Performance Engineering and Research and the Advanced Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory. 

He has written more than 120 archival journal publications and more than 200 conference publications, and has made more than 200 technical presentations in topics related to advanced technologies for ground vehicles.  

Ahmadian holds 10 U.S. and international patents, and has edited four technical volumes; he currently serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Vibration and Control, editor of the International Journal of Vehicle System Dynamics, and editor-in-chief of Shock and Vibration journal. 

He has served as associate editor for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' Journal of Vibration and Acoustics from 1989 to 1996, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal from 2000 to 2008, and the Journal of Shock and Vibration from 2003 to 2011.  

Ahmadian is a Society of Automotive Engineers' International Fellow, a Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He is the recipient of the Society of Automotive Engineers' International 2008 Forest R. McFarland Award and is an active member of the society's international group.

Ahmadian received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctoral degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Share this story