Adrian Bejan to Receive Honorary Doctorate from the University of Pretoria

Adrian Bejan, the J.A. Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke, has been awarded a Doctorate of Engineering honoris causa—or honorary doctorate degree—by the University of Pretoria, the leading research university in South Africa. The doctorate ceremony will take place on April 23, 2015, during the university’s autumn graduation ceremonies.

Bejan is being recognized for his significant contributions to the fields of thermodynamics, heat transfer and applied physics, and specifically for his groundbreaking work on the constructal law of design and evolution in nature. This physics law, penned by Bejan, predicts evolution in nature and accounts for the natural tendency of flow systems, such as rivers, trees and branches, lungs, animal movement, and social and engineered systems, to generate and evolve structures that increase access to movement or “flow.”

Bejan is also being recognized for his international standing as a researcher as well as his lifelong contribution to teaching and scholarship in the field of engineering. This is the 18th honorary doctorate degree that Bejan has received from universities in a total of 11 countries.

Video coverage of his speech at the ceremony is available here.