Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Achille Messac named chair of LCS’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Friday, July 16, 2010, By Kelly Homan Rodoski
Share
College of Engineering and Computer Science

Achille Messac has been named as distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in Syracuse University’s L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (LCS). The appointment is effective July 26.

Achilles MessacMessac becomes the second active distinguished professor in LCS, a rank that indicates he has attained the highest levels of achievement in his area of expertise.

Messac comes to SU from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y., where he has been a professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering since 2000. He served as the acting department chair from July 2008 to July 2009.

Mark Glauser, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and associate dean for research and doctoral programs in LCS, notes that, “Professor Messac is a fellow of both professional societies represented in the department—the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This is a truly remarkable accomplishment from an outstanding researcher and academic leader.”

The current thrust of Messac’s research revolves around energy systems design and optimization, including wind and solar energy harvesting. He is also currently leading the development of advanced design technologies, including physical programming, a methodology that brings optimization within easy reach of industry engineers.

“Dr. Messac is most widely known for his pioneering work in Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) for which he was recently named the winner of the prestigious MDO Award, conferred every two to four years to one person internationally by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,” says LCS Dean Laura J. Steinberg. “He will be accepting the award this fall at the AIAA meeting as a member of the LCS faculty. I am very proud to have Achille join our team at LCS where he will undoubtedly be a wonderful colleague, an inspiring leader and a passionate researcher and teacher.”

The MDO Award will be presented to Messac for his pioneering research in MDO in the areas of control structure, integrated design and physical programming. The citation also recognizes his outstanding and visionary leadership in the aerospace community. It is the highest technical award in Messac’s field of engineering.

Prior to his appointment at RPI, Messac was a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston from 1994-2000. There, he led the successful reform of the academic design program.

He was a senior member of the technical staff at The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., from 1981-1994. In this position, Messac led and participated in numerous research and development efforts. He pioneered Control Structure Integrated Design, and led NASA efforts in the award-winning development of a large simulation for the dynamics and control of the Stabilized Payload Deployment System, a two-arm payload manipulator for the shuttle orbiter. He also led the development of a large simulation to study the dynamic stability, structural behavior and control properties of the space system composed of the space station (SS), the space shuttle and the translating SS mobile transporter.

Messac holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the Department of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was a recipient of the prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and has received the AIAA Sustained Service Award. Messac also received the Annual Capstone Design Award from Northeastern University in recognition of the successful pedagogical reforms he led while there.

He is a fellow of the AIAA and the ASME. He is the former chair of the AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) Technical Committee (TC), and is a former member of the AIAA Structural Dynamics TC. He currently serves as the national AIAA deputy director for aerospace with responsibility for four technical committees.

Messac is an editorial board member and associate editor of the journal, Optimization and Engineering. He is an associate editor of the AIAA Journal, and former member of the AIAA Publications Editorial Advisory Board of the Education Series. He is also an editorial board member of the Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization Journal of the International Society for Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization.

Messac has authored or co-authored more than 165 publications. He is a member of the honor societies Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau, a member of the Strathmore, and the International Who’s Who.

  • Author

Kelly Rodoski

  • Recent
  • 2 Whitman Students Earn Prestigious AWESOME Scholarship
    Tuesday, June 17, 2025, By News Staff
  • Whitman’s Johan Wiklund Named a Top Scholar Globally for Business Research Publications
    Tuesday, June 17, 2025, By Caroline K. Reff
  • Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore ’26 Receives Prestigious Udall Scholarship
    Tuesday, June 17, 2025, By Jen Plummer
  • WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony
    Friday, June 13, 2025, By News Staff
  • Inaugural Meredith Professor Faculty Fellows Announced
    Friday, June 13, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin

More In STEM

WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony

This spring, Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) held its annual Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Award Ceremony. WiSE was honored to host distinguished guest speaker Joan-Emma Shea, who presented “Self-Assembly of the Tau Protein: Computational Insights Into Neurodegeneration.” Shea…

Endowed Professorship Recognizes Impact of a Professor, Mentor and Advisor

Bao-Ding “Bob” Cheng’s journey to Syracuse University in pursuit of graduate education in the 1960s was long and arduous. He didn’t have the means for air travel, so he voyaged more than 5,000 nautical miles by boat from his home…

Forecasting the Future With Fossils

One of the most critical issues facing the scientific world, no less the future of humanity, is climate change. Unlocking information to help understand and mitigate the impact of a warming planet is a complex puzzle that requires interdisciplinary input…

ECS Professor Pankaj K. Jha Receives NSF Grant to Develop Quantum Technology

Detecting single photons—the smallest unit of light—is crucial for advanced quantum technologies such as optical quantum computing, communication and ultra-sensitive imaging. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are the most efficient means of detecting single photons and these detectors can count…

Rock Record Illuminates Oxygen History

Several key moments in Earth’s history help us humans answer the question, “How did we get here?” These moments also shed light on the question, “Where are we going?,” offering scientists deeper insight into how organisms adapt to physical and…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.