The 2026-2027 Early Career Leadership Intern Program to Serve Engineering (ECLIPSE) has kicked off! Let's extend a warm congratulations and welcome to this year's interns.
ECLIPSE stands for promoting and celebrating long-term leadership development and diversity within its ranks. It's a commitment to nurturing the careers of promising early career professionals. Throughout the program, interns are paired with dedicated advisors and senior volunteer coaches, guiding them through their journey at ASME. They dive into meetings, workshops, and training sessions designed to hone their leadership and management skills, crucial for both professional and personal growth. Plus, there are ample networking opportunities, allowing interns to connect with each other and senior Society officers to explore how the ASME experience can shape their career paths.
We are excited to welcome the following talented interns who will serve the various ASME business units:
Lakshya Gangwar is the 2026-2027 ECLIPSE member for Standards & Certification. He is a postdoctoral associate in the Bioheat and Mass Transfer Lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota and a trainee with the NSF ERC ATP-Bio. His research applies thermal sciences, including bioheat and mass transfer, to advance organ cryopreservation for regenerative medicine and transplantation. He is developing advanced cooling technologies for rapid vitrification of human-scale organs. Dr. Gangwar earned his PhD from the University of Minnesota and his bachelor’s degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, during which he also completed a research internship at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. Within ASME, he contributes to the Thermal Medicine Standards Committee (cryo subgroup for tissue property and lexicon efforts) and the K17 Biotransport Committee, including participation in the ASME SB3C 2023 BED Student Leadership session. He also serves on the Standards Coordinating Body for Cryopreservation of Cellular Therapeutic Materials and is a former president of the International Cryobiology Young Researchers (ICYR). His honors include Front Cover on Cryogenic Society of America’s COLD FACTS, UMN ME Pui Best Dissertation Award, IEM Walter Barnes Lang Fellowship, and DAAD WISE Scholarship. Outside research, he enjoys hiking, biking, and meditation.
Jesus Melendez is the 2026-2027 ECLIPSE member for the Volunteer Orientation and Leadership Training (VOLT) Committee. Jesus is an R&D Engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he leads system-level testing and collaborates across multidisciplinary teams to deliver high-impact engineering solutions. He holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at El Paso and an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University, combining strong technical expertise with strategic leadership skills. A member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers since 2020, Jesus serves as Chair of the ASME Northern New Mexico Section and as an ASME Professional Section Ambassador, where he has driven member engagement, student outreach, and organizational growth, earning the section their first ASME Top Gear Award. He is also an adjunct instructor at Santa Fe Community College, where he teaches courses in project management, business ethics, and information literacy and systems, supporting student development in foundational competencies. As a member of the ASME ECLIPSE Program Class of 2025–2026 and part of the VOLT Academy, he is excited to contribute to the advancement of ASME’s training and leadership development initiatives.
Pratikshya Mohanty is the 2026-2027 ECLIPSE member supporting Technical & Engineering Communities (TEC). She is a Ph.D. candidate at Penn State University, where her research focuses on complex turbulent reacting flows, swirl-stabilized combustion, and optimization of additive-manufactured fuel injectors for gas turbine applications. Her work experimental diagnostics, data-driven methods, and physics-based modeling to understand flow–flame interactions and instability mechanisms. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked at GE Vernova as a Combustion Aerothermal Engineer, contributing to gas turbine commissioning, performance analysis, and combustor design and thermoacoustic modeling. An active member of ASME since 2017, she has served on the ASME IGTI Student Advisory Committee (2023, 2025) and joined the Early Career Engineering Professional Committee (ECEPC) in 2024, supporting engagement initiatives, particularly in the India region. Her broader interests lie at the intersection of energy systems, policy, and technology, with a strong commitment to advancing energy equity and sustainable infrastructure.
Daniel Moreno is the 2026-2027 ECLIPSE member supporting the Student and Early Career Engagement Sector (SECD). He is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Missouri State University's Cooperative Engineering Program, with a courtesy appointment at Missouri University of Science & Technology. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. He received his Master’s and Ph.D. at Georgia Institute of Technology, also in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Moreno’s teaching expertise is in the thermal sciences. His current research primarily focuses on energy storage/conversion systems, including electrochemical (batteries) and thermal (storage tanks/heat exchangers). Dr. Moreno frequently combines these efforts to examine the performance of batteries under different temperature conditions, as well as effective thermal management of batteries using traditional ME techniques in thermodynamics and heat transfer. Other research areas he has worked on include CO2 capture/utilization and water desalination. Dr. Moreno also serves as the faculty advisor for the ASME student section within the Cooperative Program, where he has facilitated local industry seminars/tours with the group, along with outreach programs and social events.
Sarah di Oliveira Sant’Anna is the 2026-2027 ECLIPSE member for the Board of Governors. Brazilian, resident of Rio de Janeiro, graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, passionate about engineering and technological innovation. She currently works in the industrial area in engineering and maintenance projects, and began a master's degree with an emphasis on the area of acoustics and vibrations. Working at ASME since 2021, occupying leadership positions and being a precursor of ASME students in Brazil.
Jithu Paulose is the 2026-2027 ECLIPSE member for the History & Heritage Committee. He works at Cisco Systems in California, where he focuses on AI security enterprise platforms. His career spans JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide, and several startups, all centered around AI, cloud computing, and distributed systems. He filed 4 U.S. patents in Artificial Intelligence and distributed systems. He holds a Master's in Engineering Management and a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering, with certifications including Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and an MIT certificate in Additive Manufacturing. He is currently pursuing a graduate program in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Jithu has been an active ASME member since 2014. His volunteer journey began when he founded 25+ ASME student sections across India, growing membership to over 500 engineers work that earned him the ASME Charles T. Main Student Leadership Silver Award. He served as a Collegiate Council Member of the ASME Petroleum Division Executive Committee, recognized with the ASME Petroleum Division Scholarship in 2018 and ASME IGTI Gas & Turbomachinery Scholarship in 2019. He later served as Chair of the ASME Columbus Ohio Section, Judge of the ASME IAM3D Challenge, alternate voting member on the Hoover Medal Board, and reviewer for the ASME Scholarship Committee. Beyond ASME, Jithu served on Technical Program Committees for 50+ international conferences, including the ASME IMECE, IDETC-CIE, SB3C and OMAE, reviewing over 150 research papers. He also mentors early-career engineers, judges competitions at MIT, Princeton, and UC Berkeley, and has mentored 50+ students throughout his career. Through the ECLIPSE program, Jithu hopes to deepen his engagement with ASME's History and Heritage Committee and contribute meaningfully to preserving and sharing engineering's impact on society.
Ankit Saxena is the 2026-2027 ASME ECLIPSE member for the Public Affairs and Outreach Sector. He is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wyoming (UW). He transitioned into academia after completing his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University in July 2024. During graduate school, he served as an ASME Graduate Teaching Fellow from 2022 to 2024. His research focuses on additive manufacturing and theoretical and experimental mechanics, with an emphasis on creating smart materials and structures for extreme-environment applications in aerospace, energy, and defense. At UW, Ankit enjoys mentoring students through hands-on research and classroom teaching, and he is interested in creating more opportunities for students to engage with mechanical engineering beyond traditional coursework. He sees ASME as an important community for supporting early-career engineers and strengthening pathways into mechanical engineering. As the ECLIPSE intern for the Public Affairs and Outreach Sector, Ankit hopes to support ASME’s efforts to expand awareness of mechanical engineering and its importance through education and outreach across academia, industry, and the general public. He is especially interested in contributing to initiatives that strengthen engineering education, broaden student engagement, and highlight the role of mechanical engineers in developing solutions that improve quality of life worldwide.
Sudhir Shenoy is the 2026-2027 ECLIPSE member supporting the Section Engagement Sector (SES). An engineer working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, engineering leadership, and public policy, his work is shaped by a central question: how engineers can meaningfully influence the decisions that guide emerging technologies. Sudhir served as 2025-26 Chair of the ASME Washington DC Section, where he has expanded member engagement across industry, academia, and federal agencies. He has built cross-society partnerships with organizations including IEEE, Sigma Xi, and the Washington Academy of Sciences, and introduced innovative programming and fundraising models to strengthen section sustainability and community impact. He previously served as an Associate Program Officer at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, contributing to federally sponsored consensus studies and translating technical expertise into policy-relevant insights. He is also active in IEEE leadership, including service on the AI Policy Committee and participation in Congressional Visit Days. Sudhir earned his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the University of Virginia, where he also taught and mentored over 2,000 students. He was awarded the Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award, the School of Engineering’s highest honor. He has also contributed to journal and conference publications and serves as a peer reviewer, supporting researchers and the broader scientific community. Through ECLIPSE, he is focused on strengthening section vitality, expanding member engagement, and connecting local communities to national engineering initiatives.
