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Friday, May 5, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
NO.1
Effervescence pervades professor's studies
by Alan Morgan
by Alan Morgan Kansan staff writer
For 32 years at the University of Kansas, Russell Mesler has watched bubbles. Well, not exactly watched; to say Mesler has studied bubbles.
"My wife has her own opinion as to why I entered this field of study," said Mesler, professor of chemical
engineering. "She said that I was captivated by the Pyrex coffee percolator and the bubbles that you could see through the glass ton."
Mesler uses bubbles to study nucleate boiling, an effective way of transferring heat and keeping objects cool. The knowledge he has gained from the studies is used in nuclear and industrial fields.
H. J. Giostra/KANSAN
"Everybody has seen it when they have seen a pot boiling on a stove." Mesler said. "We have been invested in improving of improving and understanding it."
"As you go along, you see a lot of interesting things that you don't understand. That gives us something to study and research."
However, the actual research and principles behind his research are extremely complex. Mesler said.
"Things have not changed much in the 30 years I've been studying it," he said. "Let's put it this way, either a very difficult topic or my very slow."
The academic community may already have answered that question for Mesler. More than 40 articles about his research have been published in magazine journals, and he has received more than $500,000 in research grants.
Mesler he began studying nucleate boiling as a topic for his doctoral paper. He said it was a topic that would work for his paper, and that was the only driving force behind his career decision.
Stacks of papers and books concerning his studies cover every horizontal surface in his office. Series of rapid exposure photographs hang from his wall. The photographs show water being dropped onto a heated surface and the explosion that occurs as a result.
From his office in Burt Hall, Messer reviews his studies. He said that like any job, it has become a high-pressure, continually challenging and expanding.
Mesler began his studies at KU in June 1957. He was born in Kansas City, Mo., and met his wife, Jenny Lea, while in high school. He joined the Navy after attending a year of junior college in Kansas City, Kan
After leaving the Navy, he enrolled at KU, which his wife attended two years later.
He received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from KU in 1949.
After graduating from KU, MESI took a job with the Colgate-Palmolive company. But he received a one-year scholarship to attend the Oakridge
Everybody has seen it when they have seen a pot boiling on a stove. We have been investigating ways of improving and understanding it.
"F
professor of chemical engineering
Russell Mesler
School of Reactor Technology in Oakridge, Tenn., and returned to the academic community.
Mesler said that through the years, his research had not generally been a conversation topic between his wife and himself.
"We don't discuss it much, not a great deal." Mesler said. "How to take it yourself with water after taking it into the microwave is usually the extent of it."
"You might say that I'm her consultant on that."
Jenny-Lea Mesler said that although they did not discuss his work much, it was always in his thoughts.
"It isn't a 9 to 5 job. It's pretty much on his mind all the time," she said. "If I know when he has a new thought ally, we don't talk about his work."
"He really enjoys his work. He's interested in it and very knowledgeable in that direction. He's bound to learn all the time as much as he works on it."
His daughter, Sandra, a senior in architectural engineering, said that in her father's free time away from work and other concerns filled his mind.
"Dad's a big KU basketball fan." Sandra said. "My parents have season tickets, but Mom's not as big of a fan as Dad is."
Sandra said her father also kept busy around the yard and enjoyed spending as much time as he could with his grandchildren.
"Although he has a lot of other things to do, his research is his job and I'm sure he does think about it in his spare time." Sandra said.
In 1961, Franklin Dale Moore, Holton graduate student, discovered that beneath a boiling water bubble, the space was cool.
cess he has had in his research to one of his early students.
Mesler said that this cool space, the contact between the bubble and the bottom of the pan, was called the micro layer.
Mesler attributes much of the suc-
"The information is important to understand anytime you try to cool something." Mesler said. "It also causes some violent explosions have occurred."
Jenny-Lea Mesler said she could not remember the details of the time surrounding the discovery made by her husband, who it was an eventful time in their lives.
She said that for her husband, it was "also a very important milestone in his research."
Mesler said that Moore went to work for Proctor & Gamble, and was nearing retirement.
Russell Mesler
"My students always seem to retire before me." Mesler said. "I guess that says something about the amount of money they make, or the amount the University is paying me."
After Mesler left Oakridge, Tenn.
he attended the University of Michigan. He obtained a master's degree in 1953 and a doctorate in 1955. He joined the faculty at Michigan for two years before returning to KU.
Mesler said that he had no intention of working for a company in the future.
"I think I'll probably spend the rest of my working years at Kansas," Mesler, 62, said.
Speaking about his research, he said, "it's treated me very well up to now, and I don't see any reason it would desert me now."
Mesler said that his research did not move in leaps and bounds, but that it slowly advanced. He said the experiment was so successful he kept the research moving forward.
"I've been at this for over thirty years, and no two students are alike. They all find ways to make a contribution." Meleser said. "Nobody discovers anything all at once. You collect little pieces of information."
You then ask, 'How do all these pieces fit together?'
"That's where I come in. I help organize all the little pieces that the students gather into one big picture."
Mesler said that there was a system of planning that went into the research.
"Between the students and I, we come up with what look like pretty good data, but come up with experimental data to prove that we were right," Mesler said.
Chris Roth, Overland Park senior,
is finishing his research for Mesler.
Roth has been conducting research
for Mesler for more than a year.
"Professor Mesler is pretty laid back," Roth said. "In his field, he's respected and widely known," Roth said.
Roth has been studying how air is captured when a drop of water is dropped into a pool of water.
P阿拉什, Bartlesville, Okla,
junior, has been doing research for
Mesler since January, and will continue
next semester.
"The research that I've done for him has taught me the techniques involved in doing research." Roth said.
Fritsch said his research involved high speed photography to study how bursting bubbles affected heat transfer.
"He is doing research in a limited field." Fritsch said. "It's not like the field of cancer research, where there are a lot of people studying it."
Mesler said that photography was used in a large part of his research.
"This field of study has continued to expand." Mesler said. "You never know where it will take you next. I never had any ambition to learn about photography; now I'm working in a lab that probably has more photograph equipment than most labs. We take a lot of pictures."
Jenny Lea Mesler does not see retirement in the near future for her husband.
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"It would be hard for him to quit," she said.
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"He's so interested in his work. It's hard to talk about retirement when he's still enjoying his work and doing well at it."
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