Dereje Agonafer

Professor and Director of Electronics, The University of Texas at Arlington

Dereje Agonafer is a Professor and Director of Electronics, MEMS, and Nanoelectronics Systems Packaging Center at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). His research interests are: multidisciplinary focus on thermo-mechanical issues in microelectronics, MEMS and nanoelectronics with broad applications including computers, telecommunications and bio-fluidics.

He has published over 150 papers and has more than 10 issued patents. Dr. Agonafer served as Editor in Chief of ASME Press Book Series in Electronic Packaging; the ASME Heat Transfer Division; the Gordon and Breach Book Series in Electronic Packaging.

Dr. Agonafer made headlines in 2012 when Facebook awarded UTA a $50,000 grant for a project whose aim is to make the social media site work faster. Led by Dr. Agonafer, the team’s goal is to quickly cool massive data centers for Facebook and 14 other large-scale corporations—which translates into savings in the millions for the companies involved.