Department of Mechanical Engineering

New Book by Prof. Thomas

Professor John H. (Jack) Thomas has joined the list of faculty from Mechanical Engineering who have authored or co-authored books. Prof. Thomas' monograph, Sunspots and Starspots, co-authored with Nigel O. Weiss from Cambridge University, was published in October 2008 by Cambridge University Press. The monograph is based on extensive collaborations between Professors Thomas and Weiss over the years via sabbaticals and extended stays at Cambridge University and University of Rochester, respectively.

The Thomas and Weiss monograph provides the first comprehensive combined account of the properties of sunspots and starspots. It covers both observations and theory, and describes the intricate fine structure of a sunspot's magnetic field and the prevalence of polar spots on stars. The book includes a substantial historical introduction and treats solar and stellar magnetic activity, dynamo models of magnetic cycles, and the influence of solar variability on the Earth's magnetosphere and climate.

This book conveys the excitement of its subject to graduate students and specialists in solar and stellar physics, and more broadly toastronomers, geophysicists, space physicists, and experts influid dynamics and plasma physics.

Other faculty members in Mechanical Engineering who have authored books include:

Prof. Roger Gans (Analytical Kinematics, published in 1991 by Butterworth-Heinemann).

Prof. Paul Funkenbusch (Practical Guide to Designed Experiments, published in 2004 by Marcel Dekker).

Prof. James C. M. Li (editor of Microstructure and Properties of Materials, vol 1 published in 1996 by World Scientific, and vol. 2 published in 2000).

Prof. Rob Clark (Adaptive Structures: Dynamics Control, co-authored with William Saunders and Gary Gibbs, published in 1998 by Wiley).

David Quesnel (Particle Adhesion, published in 2002 by Taylor & Francis, co-edited with Don Rimai and Louis Sharpe).