In honor of Graduate Student Appreciation Week, we would like to give a warm shout-out to our department’s very own Amir Malvandi. Amir joined the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering in January of 2018 to pursue his research on computational and experimental heat transfer enhancement techniques for biological materials. He is an alum of Amirkabir University of Technology -Tehran Polytechnic, where he received his master’s degree, and he is also the recipient of the 2022 Ben and Georgeann Jones Graduate Student Award for research excellence.

During the course of his research, Amir has developed a smart, ultrasonic contract drying system for non-thermal drying of heat sensitive materials. In his own words, “My research has attracted considerable attention among different industries such as pulp and paper, food, and agriculture, and has gained considerable funding from governmental agencies such as DOE, USDA, and NSF.”

From 2021-2022, Amir’s research focused on the “the application of artificial intelligence to rapid and non-destructive data acquisition and developing unique sequential decision making to optimize the drying process by reducing energy consumption and improving the product quality.”

Amir Malvandi is in the final stage of his Ph.D. and hopes to pursue a career in academia in the future.