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UH Department of Mechanical Engineering Welcomes New Faculty Member
By
Esmeralda Gomez
Masson
Masson

The Cullen College of Engineering has welcomed a new faculty member to the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Philippe Masson joins the department as an assistant professor.

In his previous appointment as a research faculty member at Florida State University, Masson studied high power density superconducting machines for aircraft propulsion. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering - Applied Superconductivity in 2002 from University Henri Poincaré, France.

Masson’s stay in the U.S. was extended after he received additional funding from the Air Force to work on simulations of fundamental phenomena in superconductors. He then went to work for the Advanced Magnet Lab in Florida as a senior scientist in applied superconductivity for large generators and motors.

After three years of working in the private sector, Masson decided to go back to academia. “I always wanted to be a professor,” said Masson. Faculty appointments in the field of applied superconductivity are rare, so when Professor Venkat Selvamanickam contacted Masson about a position opening at UH, he was highly interested. “I enjoy teaching, actually,” said Masson. “I taught numerous courses when I was in Florida, and I like teaching through interaction with students.”

This semester, Masson will prepare to start a project for NASA Glenn Research Center, developing a very high fidelity numerical model to size superconducting generators and motors that will be used in aircraft. Future projects include evaluating losses in superconductors, both experimentally and theoretically. He will begin teaching courses next semester.

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