The University of Connecticut has chosen Mun Young Choi to be dean of engineering effective January 2008. Choi is currently at Drexel University serving as Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department and as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering.

Choi earned his Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, working as a member of the Fuels and Combustion Research Laboratory headed by Prof. Frederick Dryer. His research focuses on the combustion of isolated droplets of fuel under microgravity conditions. Early this year, Choi received a NASA grant to work on “Flame Extinction of Flames in Microgravity Platforms.” He is collaborating with Dryer and other scientists on this project, which will lead to an experiment on the International Space Station in 2009 to address fire safety criteria for low-gravity habitats and manned spacecraft missions.