On September 23, 2020, we had as guest in our Feraru Conferences Online series a star of the international scientific world, multi-award winning scientist and influential thinker Adrian Bejan, professor of engineering at Duke University. Professor Bejan talked to the RCINY director Dorian Branea about his most compelling discovery, "the constructal law" as very the organizing principle of life, and its manifestations in the realms of morality, social life, and creativity.
Adrian Bejan is J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University. He authored 30 books and over 650 peer-referred articles in the fields of engineering science and applied physics: thermodynamics, heat transfer, convection, design, and evolution in nature. The idea of "constructal law" is developed in seminal volumes like Design in Nature (Anchor, 2012),The Physics of Life. The Evolution of Everything (St. Martin's Press, 2016) and Freedom and Evolution. Hierarchy in Nature, Society and Science (Springer, 2019). In 2001 Professor Bejan was ranked among the 100 most highly cited authors worldwide in engineering by the Institute for Scientific Information. He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal (The Franklin Institute, 2018), the Ralph Coats Roe Medal and the RCR Award (American Society of Engineering Education, 2017 and 2000), the James P. Hartnett Memorial Award (International Center of Heat and Mass Transfer, 2007), and the Edward F. Obert Award and the Charles Russ Richards Memorial Award (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2004 and 2001), among many others. He also is the recipient of 18 honorary doctorates from universities in 11 countries.