A picture of Jennifer E Michaels smiling
Official Job Title
Professor Emeritus
Emeritus Length of Service
2002-2016
Email Address
Office Building
VL
Office Room Number
E392A
Technical Interest Group(s)
Biography

Prof. Michaels was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in Ashland, Kentucky. She graduated from Georgia Tech in 1976 with a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering, and then joined the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory in Richland, Washington, where she first began developing systems and methods for ultrasonic evaluation. This work led to her graduate studies in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University, where she earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1982 and 1984, and spent a year as an IBM Postdoctoral Fellow. From 1985 until joining the Georgia Tech faculty in 2002, she worked in industry, first as co-founder of a startup company, and later as Manager of Systems Development at Panametrics, Inc., a world leader in the development and manufacture of automated ultrasonic inspection systems.

Prof. Michaels’ industrial and research career has primarily been focused in the general area of ultrasonic wave propagation as applied to nondestructive evaluation and structural health monitoring. She has made major contributions related to ultrasonic sparse guided wave arrays, wavefield imaging, in situ monitoring of structures, signal processing and imaging methods, and automated inspection systems. She regularly consults for industry on projects related to ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation and automated systems.

Research
  • Ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation
  • Structural health monitoring
  • Nondestructive materials characterization
  • Ultrasonic and acoustic signal processing and imaging
  • Ultrasonic measurement systems
  • Robotics and motion controls for automated measurements
Distinctions & Awards
  • Seven patents related to Ultrasonic Inspection Methods and Systems
  • Member, American Society of Nondestructive Testing
  • Member, Acoustical Society of America
  • Senior Member, IEEE
  • Associate Editor, Ultrasonics
  • Associate Editor, Structural Health Monitoring

Awards

  • Phi Kappa Phi and Eta Kappa Nu Senior Awards, Georgia Tech, 1977
  • IBM and NSF Fellowships, Cornell University, 1980-1984
  • Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni, Georgia Tech, 1995
  • Women in Engineering Excellence Faculty Mentoring Award, 2005
  • Hesburgh Award Teaching Fellow, 2010
  • Class of 1940 Course Survey Teaching Effectiveness Award, 2014
  • Outstanding Paper, American Society of Nondestructive Testing, 2015