Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering receives top graduate award from NSF

Hannah Dailey, who earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Lehigh in 2002, has become one of 900 students nationwide to receive the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship.

The three-year award will cover Dailey's tuition and pay her a monthly stipend while she pursues a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Lehigh. The competitive fellowships are given to U.S. citizens and residents studying biological, engineering, behavioral, mathematical, physical or social sciences.

Daily is working with Samir Ghadiali, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics and a faculty member in Lehigh's Bioengineering and Life Sciences Program, on a computational fluid dynamics project involving air flow in the human lung.

As an undergraduate, Dailey joined the Pi Tau Sigma and Tau Beta Pi honor societies for mechanical engineering and overall engineering, respectively, and completed internships at Stanley Toolworks and General Motors. She also received the H.R. and Y.B. Liu Wei Prize, which is given annually by the department of mechanical engineering and mechanics to a top student for academic achievement and leadership.

After graduating, she worked for the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division in Maryland, where she studied computational fluid dynamics related to submarines and surface ships. The goal of the 12-member team on which she worked was to improve stealth technology by minimizing the noise and vibration which result when a ship passes through water and which are detectable by other ships.

In 2003, Dailey enrolled as a graduate student in the mechanical engineering and mechanics department. She applied for the NSF graduate fellowship and was named runner-up for the award, before her successful application earlier this year.

In her research project, Dailey is using the equations of fluid dynamics and solid mechanics "to demonstrate that the primary region of particle deposition in the lungs can be directly controlled by varying the size of the particles and patients' breathing patterns." She will develop a dynamic model of the two-part structure of the lungs that will simulate air-flow conditions for patients with normal lung function and for patients whose function has been compromised. She will compare her numerical results with actual results from lab experiments.

Dailey says her research could contribute to the development of new medications and also affect public-health policy.

"The knowledge gained through this study could lead to more effective inhaled pharmaceuticals," she says. "It could also steer public health decisions about how much exposure to aerosolized microbial or chemical agents must be considered a toxic dose."