Jeff Punch

Prof. Jeff Punch is a Professor at the University of Limerick's School of Engineering and a researcher at the Bernal Institute. His expertise lies in micro-scale thermal and mechanical phenomena in electronic systems, with a focus on energy management and reliability physics. He leads the Stokes Laboratories and is a Funded Investigator with SFI’s CONNECT Centre. With over €10M in research funding, he supervises five postgraduate students and mentors one postdoctoral researcher. His work spans over 150 refereed publications and five patents, addressing thermal management challenges in electronics and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

Education:

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering, 1994
• Bachelor of Engineering, 1990

Research Interests:

• Thermal management of electronic systems
• Two-phase heat transfer
• Energy harvesting
• Reliability of solder joints
• Microfluidic cooling for photonic integrated circuits

Key Contributions:

• Developed novel thermal characterization techniques for heat pipes and microfluidic systems
• Advanced vibration energy harvesting technologies for low-frequency applications
• Improved understanding of additive manufacturing materials for thermal control systems

Labs & Teams: Stokes Laboratories (focusing on mechanical engineering science), CONNECT Centre (SFI-funded research on ICT and data-driven systems).