Doctoral Student, Jinah Jeun Receives Amelia Earhart Fellowship
Jinah Jeun, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in the AEM Department, has been awarded the 2016 Amelia Earhart Fellowship by Zonta International. The Amelia Earhart Fellowship was established in 1938 in honor of famed pilot and Zontian, Amelia Earhart. Zonta International offers the Amelia Earhart Fellowship in an effort to carry out its mission that women have access to all resources and are represented in decision-making positions on an equal basis with men. The $10,000 Fellowship is awarded annually to 35 women pursuing doctoral degrees in aerospace-related sciences or aerospace-related engineering. Past Fellows have gone on to become astronauts, aerospace engineers, astronomers, professors, geologists, business owners, heads of companies, and even the Secretary of the US Air Force.
Currently, Jeun is developing so-called input-output analysis, a new systems-theoretic approach adopted from the control theory in electrical engineering to understand the sound generation mechanisms of turbulent jets and ultimately to reduce the noise. Terrifyingly loud noise produced by high-speed turbulent jets may be a significant threat to the hearing and safety of the people living and working close by. Despite more than 60 years of academic explorations, however, predicting turbulent jet noise still remains an open problem. This is partly because the energy associated with acoustic radiation is small, compared to the aerodynamic energy of turbulence that produces it. In this sense, noise prediction depends critically on capturing the sources of noise, but its highly nonlinear, multiscale, chaotic nature makes simulating turbulence challenging. Jeun’s research utilizes cutting-edge computational resources to develop a predictive platform for the aeroacoustics of turbulent jets. She also uses advanced mathematical analysis to develop new reduced-order models which describe the essential physics of turbulent jet noise economically without losing the accuracy.
Her advisor, Professor Joe Nichols, is proud of her success at the U of M thus far. He says, “She has just published her first article in an archival journal. Additionally she has published two AIAA conference papers, and is now preparing for the OPE. This is all within about one and a half years in our program, so things are going really well.”
Jeun is new to the state of Minnesota, hailing from South Korea. She received her B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and her M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
She has wanted to be an aerospace engineer since childhood because “aircrafts flying across the sky looked cool” to her. Through a series of fluid mechanics classes she took as an undergrad, she realized that analogies exist between the physics of fluids and human life, and she completely fell in love with her area of study.
In her free time, Jeun enjoys watching period dramas about British literature. “BBC has a great collection of classic period dramas based on the works of Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, and others,” she says. “If I had not gone to an engineering school, I would have become a writer.”
Jeun would like to thank her advisor, Professor Nichols, for the careful guidance and intellectual inspirations he has given to her and her research. As an international and a female student, she is also thankful for the open and welcoming environment of the AEM department and faculty members. She comments, “The AEM department supports students so that they are able to 100% focus on their research without worrying about miscellaneous stuff.”
For more information on Zonta International and the Amelia Earhart Fellowship, please refer to: https://www.zonta.org/Global-Impact/Education/Amelia-Earhart-Fellowship