Devesh Ranjan, associate chair for Research, Ring Family Chair, and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed interim vice president for Interdisciplinary Research (VPIR).

Ranjan officially assumed the role on Feb. 1. Raheem Beyah, the former vice president for Interdisciplinary Research, began serving in his new role as the dean of the College of Engineering on Jan. 15.

In January, Ranjan was named the inaugural Ring Family Chair, and he has served as associate chair for Research in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering since 2019. He is currently part of a 10-member technical screening committee for the National Academy of Engineering’s Covid-19 Call for Engineering Action task force, an initiative to help fight the coronavirus pandemic. His research includes the mixing of materials at extreme conditions, the physics of hydrodynamic instabilities, and advanced power conversion cycles.

His scientific contributions have earned numerous awards, with research efforts that can potentially lead to advances in a number of fields, including energy, environment, and inertial confinement fusion devices. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and a U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, and was the first recipient of Department of Energy-Early Career Award at Georgia Tech and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

“We appreciate Devesh’s continued service to Georgia Tech,” said Chaouki T. Abdallah, executive vice president for Research. “His leadership as both a researcher and an administrator will support the Institute and the research enterprise well during this transition.”

Ranjan joined the faculty here in 2014. Before coming to Georgia Tech, Ranjan was a director’s research fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Morris E. Foster Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Texas A&M University. He earned his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007.

A search for the next VPIR will commence in the coming weeks. Ranjan will serve until the position is filled.