Prof. Adrian BEJAN
Duke University
Duke Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Durham, USA
Adrian Bejan received the Benjamin Franklin Medal for 'Thermodynamics and constructal theory, which predicts natural design and its evolution in engineering, scientific, and social systems'.
All his degrees are from MIT.At Duke University he is the J.A.Jones Distinguished Professor.He authored 30 books and 650 peer - refereed journal articles, and was awarded 18 honorary doctorates from universities in 11 countries.He is a member of the Academy of Europe.
Recent books:
Design in Nature (Doubleday 2012)
The Physics of Life (St.Martin's Press 2016)
Discipline, designs and evolution
This is a brief look at the thermodynamics discipline: the laws and the self-standing phenomena that they underpin, the drawings that convey the main ideas, and the pillar of ‘evolution’ that holds the whole tent. The science of thermodynamics evolves as an add-on that empowers humans to predict the future and move more easily on earth, farther and longer in time. With the constructal law, thermodynamics accounts for the universal phenomenon of evolution in nature, as physics—bio, non-bio, human made and not human made. Nothing moves by itself unless it is driven by power, which is destroyed (dissipated) during movement. Nothing evolves unless it flows and has freedom to change its architecture to provide greater and easier access to what flows. The usefulness of the discipline comes from the freedom to question authority and to change your mind, the idea and the drawing, in order to evolve over time and facilitate movement, life and advancement.