NEW YORK, May 15, 2008 – John Douglas Denton, Ph.D., a resident of North Yorkshire, UK, and a consultant, will be honored by ASME.  He is being recognized for a co-authored paper titled “The Control of Shroud Leakage Loss by Reducing Circumferential Mixing.” He will receive ASME’s Gas Turbine Award.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the literature of combustion gas turbines or gas turbines thermally combined with nuclear or steam power plants.  It will be presented to Denton during the ASME TURBO EXPO 2008, which is being held in Berlin, Germany, June 9 through 13.

After earning his Ph.D. in the UK in 1967, Denton was a lecturer at the University of East Africa, Kenya.  He returned to the UK in 1969 and worked at the Central Electricity Generating Board, the main UK electricity utility.  There he performed research on steam turbine aerodynamics and started the development of numerical methods for predicting the flow through turbomachines.

In 1977, Denton moved to the University of Cambridge, UK, as a lecturer based at the Whittle Laboratory.  He undertook research on the aerodynamics of gas and steam turbines; continued the development of numerical methods, which became widely adopted around the world; and supervised much experimental work. 

Denton was promoted to reader in 1989, professor in 1991 and was director of the Whittle Laboratory from 1984 to 1990 and again from 1999 to 2005.  He retired from the University of Cambridge in 2005, but continues working as a consultant, and developing and using numerical methods.  He has authored more than 70 publications and holds two patents.

Denton is a member of the ASME Turbomachinery Committee and has authored many ASME/International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) papers. He was a member (1991-97) of the IGTI Scholar Award Committee and served as chair (1993-97).  Over the years, he has chaired sessions at numerous IGTI conferences.  He was recognized with an ASME Best Turbomachinery Paper Award (1989), ASME IGTI’s Gas Turbine Scholar Award (1993) and Aircraft Engine Technology Award (1998), and ASME’s R. Tom Sawyer Award (2007). 

A member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineer, Denton is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society.

Denton received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical sciences, with first class honors, at the University of Cambridge in 1961.  He earned his master’s degree in engineering at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) in 1963 and his Ph.D. in engineering at Cambridge in 1967.  He is a chartered engineer in the UK.

Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences.  ASME develops codes and standards that enhance public safety, and provides lifelong learning and technical exchange opportunities benefiting the global engineering and technology community.  ASME has more than 127,000 members worldwide.

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