image: Dr. Natalie Smith has been named a recipient of the 2023 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Dedicated Service Award, recognizing her more than 10 years of dedicated voluntary service to ASME marked by outstanding performance, demonstrated effective leadership, prolonged and committed service, devotion, enthusiasm and faithfulness. Smith is a Group Leader in the Rotating Machinery Dynamics Section in SwRI’s Mechanical Engineering Division. view more
Credit: Southwest Research Institute
“It is an honor,” Smith said. “The ASME Turbo Expo community has been a valuable part of my professional development and it has been a pleasure to give back." Since joining SwRI in 2016, Smith has performed aerodynamic design and testing of turbomachinery and advanced system analysis for programs related to power generation, aviation, oil and gas, and energy storage, including next-generation supercritical carbon dioxide power cycles.
Smith has also managed three long-duration energy storage projects, developing a pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) demonstration facility, conducting a techno-economic feasibility study of a PTES integrated with a gas-fired power plant in Texas, and component development for PTES.
Smith has a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from California Polytechnic State University as well as a master’s degree and doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics, both from Purdue University. She has co-authored more than 40 conference papers, contributed to 18 journal articles and three book chapters and has won three best paper awards.
In 2022, the ASME bestowed the Dilip R. Ballal Early Career Award on Smith, and she won the Best Paper Award at the 2015 ASME Turbomachinery Exposition in the Structures and Dynamics Committee. Smith has also served on the ASME Global Gas Turbine News editorial committee, has served on the ASME PTC-10 update committee and has held leadership positions in Turbo Expo at the technical committee and organizing committee levels. She will serve as the Conference Chair for Turbo Expo 2023.
Smith will be presented with a plaque, certificate and lapel pin at Turbo Expo 2023, which takes place June 26–30 in Boston.
For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/industry/advanced-power-systems/long-duration-energy-storage.