Lance Collins (engineer) facts for kids

Lance Collins is a well-known engineer and professor. He teaches about mechanical and aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech. He used to be the head of the engineering school at Cornell University. Now, he is a top leader at the new Virginia Tech Innovation Campus.

Becoming an Engineer

When Lance Collins was a high school student in 1976, he joined a special program. It was called the Minority Introduction to Engineering (MITE) Program. This program helped him discover his passion for engineering. He was from Westbury, New York.

After high school, he got accepted into many great universities. These included Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He chose Princeton University and earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1981. This degree is often called a BSE. Later, he went to the University of Pennsylvania. There, he earned a master's degree (MS) in 1983 and a doctorate degree (PhD) in 1987. Both of these advanced degrees were also in chemical engineering.

Lance Collins made history at these universities. He was the second African-American to graduate in chemical engineering from Princeton. He was also the first African-American to get a PhD from the engineering school at the University of Pennsylvania. While studying, he also worked at Bell Labs, a famous research lab.

His Career Journey

In 1989, Lance Collins worked as a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He worked with a famous scientist named Francis H. Harlow.

Later, he became a professor of chemical engineering. He taught at Pennsylvania State University for 11 years. In 1998, he visited other research places. He worked in France and again at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In 2002, Collins joined Cornell University. He became the first African American director of the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He then became the first African American dean of engineering at Cornell. A dean is like the head of a college or school within a university.

As dean, he helped more students from minority groups join the engineering program. The number of female students also grew to 50%. He also played a big part in starting Cornell Tech. This is a new campus in New York City. During his time as dean, the engineering college received its two largest gifts ever. Each gift was $50 million.

After leading Cornell's engineering college for two terms, Collins moved to Virginia Tech. He became a top leader for their new Innovation Campus. This campus is in Alexandria, Virginia. He started this new role on August 1, 2020.

Lance Collins also helped create the Minority Faculty Forum in 1995. He co-organized a workshop in 2006 to help minority faculty members. He also served as the chair of a national committee for mechanics. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also served on a committee for the National Science Foundation.

Since 2018, Collins has been on the board of trustees for the Mitre Corporation. He is also part of an advisory board for the University of Michigan's engineering college.

What He Researches

Lance Collins studies how fluids move in a messy way, which is called turbulence. He uses computer simulations to understand this. For example, he studies how fire burns.

He also researches how tiny particles, called aerosols, clump together in turbulent air. He looks at how small things like droplets or red blood cells break apart in turbulence. He also studies how to reduce drag (resistance) using special additives. Collins also creates new ways to describe these tiny turbulent processes.

Awards and Honors

Lance Collins has received many awards for his work:

• 1990: Dow Young Minority Investigator Award
• 1997: Best Paper Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)
• 2005: Became a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• 2007: Became a Fellow of the American Physical Society
• 2014: Became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• 2014: William W. Grimes Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering
• 2015: Pioneer of Diversity Award
• 2017: Inaugural Mosaic Medal of Distinction
• 2018: Edward Bouchet Legacy Award
• 2021: Became a Member of the National Academy of Engineering