Todd Otanicar

Bio

Dr. Todd Otanicar joined Boise State University in July 2019 as an associate professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering. He directs the Thermal Transport and Solar Energy Lab at Boise State where we focus on developing novel heat and mass transfer solutions for a wide range of applications. The primary application for many of these is in the field of solar energy, including concentrating solar thermal and photovoltaics

Dr. Otanicar is a Professional Engineer (P.E.) and has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University, a M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas. Prior to joining Boise State he worked at the University of Tulsa, Loyola Marymount University, and GE Aircraft Engines. His research has been supported by NSF, NASA, DOE, ARPA-E, Department of Interior, and industry collaborators.

Dr. Otanicar serves as the interim Associate Dean for Research Affairs for the College of Engineering and also serves on the Idaho Clean Tech Alliance advisory board.

Courses Taught

• ME 321 Thermal/Fluids II
• ME 323 Thermal/Fluids II
• ME 401 Systems Engineering and Applications
• ME 539 Radiation Heat Transfer

Education

• B.S., Aerospace Engineering, The University of Kansas, 2002
• M.S., Mechanical Engineering, The University of Cincinnati, 2005
• Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Arizona State University, 2009

Research

• Heat transfer
• Solar Energy
• Desalination

Publications

Todd Otanicar’s Google Scholar Citation page