ASME NEWS
ASME Rededicates the No. 611 Steam Locomotive
A roundup of recent Society events.
No. 611 Steam Locomotive Rededication
The Norfolk & Western #611 Class J Steam Locomotive was rededicated 41 years after its original designation as a ASME Landmark in 1984. “People come from all over the world to ride behind No. 611,” explained Zac McGinnis, steam operations manager at the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) who has been working with and around the steam locomotive since 2014.
“We’re incredibly proud at the Virginia Museum of Transportation to share the #611 not only as a living piece of history, but as a platform to teach engineering, steam technology, and the craftsmanship that built these machines,” he explained. At the end of September, the owner of the #611 joined ASME to rededicate the locomotive by unveiling a new plaque on its coal car. The new inscription replaced the 1984 plaque and helped commemorate the 75th anniversary of the locomotive’s build.
What most people can take away from these giants of their age is that “the steam locomotive is one of the greatest inventions in human history. In roughly 100 years, we went from small wood-burning engines that topped out around 20 mph to powerful coal-burning locomotives generating over 5,000 horsepower and running 100 mph,” McGinnis explained. “They linked the nation, carried its people, moved freight, and powered the country through two world wars—all by boiling water.”
> The #611 Class J Steam Locomotive engine. Photo: Joseph Radisek
Gurkan Awarded ASME Woo Medal
According to the most recent World Health Organization numbers, an estimated 7.74 million people globally live with sickle-cell disease (SCD), a serious blood disorder that leads to severe health complications. Umut A. Gurkan, ASME member and Bioengineering Division honors committee volunteer was awarded the ASME Savio L-Y. Woo Translational Biomechanics Medal that recognizes an individual who has translated meritorious bioengineering science to clinical practice through research, education, professional development, and with service to the bioengineering community.
In the Journal Lab on a Chip, Gurkan and his research team’s article, “Evaluating anti-sickling therapies for sickle cell disease: a microfluidic assay for red blood cell-mediated microvascular occlusion under hypoxia,” described the OcclusionChip as a microfluidic assay that measures red blood cells’ deformability through microcapillary occlusion. They validated the hypoxia occlusion index as a robust measure of RBC deformability in SCD optimized by a chemically induced hypoxia assay using sodium metabisulfite within the OcclusionChip platform.
Raman Nominated to Lead the NIST
Arvind Raman, dean of engineering at Purdue University, has been nominated to become the under secretary of commerce with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The White House hasn’t yet publicly announced the nomination that was received by the Senate in early October and is currently with the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Raman was elected a Fellow of ASME in 2012 and was awarded the ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award. He has served as an associate editor of the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurements and Controls as well as an associate editor of the Journal of Fluid Structures Interactions.
Born in India, Raman earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue and his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Working as a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue since 2000, he is known for his research on vibrations and nonlinear dynamics, and his work has supported the development of atomic force microscopy.
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