Mahmoud Melehy
Emeritus Prof.
Office: ITE 347
Phone: (860)486-3344
Email: melehy@engr.uconn.edu

Education:
B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Cairo, 1947
M.S., Electrical Engineering, Ohio State University, 1949
M.S., Mathematics, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1950.
Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1952

Brief Biography:
After finishing his graduate studies, Dr. Melehy served on the faculty of the University of Arkansas, University of Alaska, and Michigan State University. Then, in 1958, he joined the University of Connecticut, and continued to serve until his retirement in 1992. During that time, he taught courses in a number of areas, including semiconductor physics, statistical and interfacial thermodynamics, electromagnetism, and circuit theory.

His research areas, which are still active, primarily include metal and semiconductor physics, and interfacial thermodynamics. His work on thermodynamics involves generalizing Einstein’s theory of Brownian to interfacial systems, and studying some of its applications.

The work on thermodynamics has been published in over 80 journal and conference articles and abstracts, and in two books and parts of two others.

Dr. Melehy's work in thermodynamics has numerous applications. It has unified the theory of semiconductor diodes and solar cells. Theory has accurately corroborated experimental data reported by some 25 authors, in a period exceeding a quarter of a century. He has further shown that the two laws of thermodynamics require the electrification of most surfaces, membranes, junctions, phase boundaries and other interfaces. This nearly universal property provides the first thermodynamic confirmation of Newton’s speculation that capillarity, attraction of light particles to surfaces and other interfacial phenomena involve electric forces.

The novel result of interfacial electrification has readily explained numerous diversified, natural phenomena, of interdisciplinary interest, such as: (1) the generation of static electricity by rubbing two different insulators against one another, (2) surface tension, (3) capillarity (4) adhesion of light particles to surfaces, (5) drop coalescence, (6) the release of electric charges upon phase change, (7) the origin of atmospheric electricity, (8) the electromagnetic forces that shape tornadoes, and (9) the cloud and fog suspension, to mention a few examples.

In 1970, 1977, and 1989, he spent sabbatical leaves, respectively, at Harvard University, the University of Oxford, Oxford, England, and Yale University. During his visit in 1977 to England, he was invited to give seminars on his work on thermodynamics as applied to semiconductor devices, at 26 universities and research institutes in England, Germany, the three Scandinavian countries, and Poland, where he was a guest of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

In 1960, Dr. Melehy served as a consultant to Shockley transistor, Mountain View, California, where he worked, and published two papers, one of which was coauthored by Dr. W. Shockley, inventor of the junction transistor and co-recipient of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics.

In 2007, Dr. Melehy received the Distinguished Faculty Service Award from the University of Connecticut School of Engineering.

Memberships:
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
American Physical Society

Recent Publications

Recent Publications:
Books:

" Introduction to Interfacial Transport: A Generalization of Einstein’s Theory of Brownian Motion with Interdisciplinary Applications, " AuthorHouse, Bloomington, IN, 2009.

" Thermodynamic Theory of Adhesion of Particles on Surfaces, " Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Particles on Surfaces Detection, Adhesion and Removal, Providence, RI, Ed. By K. L. Mittal VSP, Zeist, The Netherlands, June 24-26, 2002.

" Foundations of the Thermodynamic Theory of Generalized Fields, " Mono Book Corporation, Baltimore, MD, USA, 1973.

" On the theory of generalized fields in nonequilibrium thermodynamics. " In Proc. 1969 Pittsburgh, PA, Int. Symp. on " A critical review of thermodynamics, " edited by Stuart, E. B. Gal-Or, and A. J. Brainard. Mono Book Corp., Baltimore. pp. 345-405.

Journal and Conference Articles:

" Generalization of Einstein’s Theory of Brownian Motion, " Proc. of the Albert Einstein Century International Conference,” held July 18-22, 2005, Paris, Am. Institute of Physics, vol. 861, pp. 524-531, 2006.

" Thermal Momentum in Thermodynamics and Interfacial Electrification, " Proceedings of the 12th International Heat Transfer Conference, (J. Taine and International Scientific Committee, eds.), Elsevier, Vol. 1, pp. 507-512, Grenoble, France, Aug. 18-23, 2002.

" Thermal Momentum in Thermodynamics, Part 3: On the Evaluation of Thermodynamic Parameters and Entropy Uniqueness,” Physics Essays, 14, No. 1, pp. 49-58, 2001.

" Thermal Momentum in Thermodynamics, Part 2: Interfacial Electrification: A New Consequence of the First and Second Laws.” Phys. Essays 11 (3), 430-443, 1998.

" Thermal Momentum in Thermodynamics, Part 1: Nature of Pressure, Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium and Generalization of the Maxwell-Einstein Diffusion Force. " Phys. Essays 10, 287-303, 1997.