The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics has recently welcomed four new faculty members.
"I'm pleased to welcome several new faculty members to MEM,” says Arindam Banerjee, Paul B. Reinhold Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics and chair of the MEM department. “Their expertise strengthens our department’s efforts in key areas like energy conservation, transport, and storage, while also bringing valuable leadership to our academic programs. These additions reflect our commitment to advancing research and education through multifaceted perspectives and specialized knowledge."
Luciana Arronche is a teaching assistant professor and the director of the Polymer Science and Engineering graduate program. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Prof. Arronche has more than 13 years of experience in the polymer field. Her career began in Brazil as a plastics technician specializing in rheology and polymer characterization. She earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering with a minor in mechanical engineering while working in manufacturing process optimization and quality control. Later, she completed her master’s in mechanical and aeronautical engineering at the University of California, Davis, where she also served as a research engineer and lab manager, publishing extensively on damage detection in fiber-reinforced composites.
Valerie Ciocca Holt is a teaching associate professor and director of operations for the National Science Foundation’s National Research Traineeship (NRT) Program, where she specializes in graduate training in energy. Previously, she served as director and instructor for the Advanced Energy Systems graduate program at the Colorado School of Mines, a program developed in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Prof. Holt has extensive experience in graduate program development and interdisciplinary teaching and advising, and is dedicated to creating educational programs that foster collaborative research with practical applications. She teaches introduction to research methodologies, advises MEM capstone students, and developed a university-wide course focused on stakeholder engagement strategies for defining, developing, and deploying energy solutions. She holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, as well as an MBA and M.Ed. from Lehigh.
Jordan Inacio is a teaching assistant professor, supporting core undergraduate teaching needs in the MEM department. Prof. Inacio earned his BS (2011) and PhD (2022) from Lehigh. His doctoral research specialized in orthopedic trauma biomechanics, with an emphasis on computational modeling and experimental methods. Prior to joining the Lehigh faculty, he worked in various industries as a project engineer, developing consumer and medical-grade products, with a focus on mechanical design, testing, and fabrication.
Xuanjie Wang is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics. His research vision is to address the growing demand for energy and water by advancing energy conservation, transport, and storage technologies, and creating new materials, devices, and environmentally sustainable systems. His research uses principles and tools in heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics, micro/nanotechnology, and computational modeling. Prior to joining the Lehigh faculty, he was a postdoctoral associate in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He holds an MS from Hong Kong University Science and Technology and a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, both in mechanical engineering. The Wang Research Group has openings for PhD students, with research themes including thermal and fluids engineering, radiation heat transfer and thermal management, and clean energy production and energy storage.
