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Vijay K. Dhir (born 1943) is currently the Dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, since March 2003. He is also a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, joining the UCLA faculty in 1974.[1] He is the principal investigator of the Boiling eXperiment Facility - Nucleate Pool Boiling eXperiment (BXF-NPBX), which was conducted in micro-g environment on the International Space Station to understand bubble growth, detachment and subsequent motion of single and large merged bubbles boiling in micro-g environment.[2]
Dhir was born in India, where he received his B.E. and M.Tech. degrees (Punjab Engineering College and Indian Institute of Technology). He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1972 from the University of Kentucky.
Prior to becoming the dean at the school, Dhir served as vice chair (1988–1991) and chair (1994–2000) of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Then he served as the school's associate dean for academic and faculty issues and as Interim Dean (2002–2003).
He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2006, one of the highest honors for engineers. In 2004, he received the Max Jakob Memorial Award.