Mitchell Smooke

Mitchell Smooke is the Strathcona Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Yale University, where he has held this position since 1995. He previously served as Dean of Engineering (2000, 2018–2019) and Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department (1994–2000, 2006–2012). His research focuses on computational combustion, chemical vapor deposition, and numerical methods for solving differential equations. Smooke has authored over 18,500 citations with an h-index of 70, and his work is supported by grants totaling over $25M. He is a Fellow of the Combustion Institute, SIAM, AIAA, and IOP, and has received prestigious awards like the Zeldovich Gold Medal (2012) and the Oppenheim Prize (2004).

Smooke earned his M.B.A. from UC Berkeley and PhD/M.S. from Harvard University, followed by a B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research team collaborates on projects like oxygen-enhanced combustion and high-pressure nitromethane studies. He co-developed the CHEMKIN software package and contributed to algorithms for premixed flame codes (PREMIX), counterflow flames (OPPDIF), and sensitivity analysis. His recent work includes microgravity soot formation studies and constrained-temperature flame solutions.

Smooke has led over 250 invited lectures globally and serves on editorial boards for Combustion Theory and Modelling and Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics. He has advised numerous graduate students and chairs committees on computational infrastructure and combustion research. His lab focuses on advancing numerical methods to model complex reacting flows and validate experimental data through high-fidelity simulations.