Tomadakis, Manolis
Manolis Tomadakis
Professor | Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Chemical Engineering Program Chair
Contact Information
Expertise
Personal Overview
Dr. Tomadakis has been on the Florida Tech Chemical Engineering faculty since 1993. He has been teaching courses in Fluids, Heat and Mass Transfer, and Separation Processes, at the undergraduate and graduate level. He is a Professional Engineer registered with the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE), a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), and an officer of the East Central Florida Local Section of the AIChE. He has served for a number of years as the Advisor of the Florida Tech Student Chapter of the AIChE and a member of the AIChE National Student Chapter Committee. He also served on the Organizing Committees of the International Conference on Porous Media and the AIChE Southern Regional Conference, and chaired sessions in these and other technical conferences.
Dr. Tomadakis was named an AIChE Fellow by the Institute's Board of Directors in 2017 in recognition of outstanding contributions to Chemical Engineering education and research, program development and leadership, and professional service. He has earned the Future Educators of America Excellence in Teaching Award, the Florida Tech Most Valuable Panther (MVP) Award, the Florida Tech Service Excellence Award, the Florida Tech Student Organization Advisor of the Year Award, the Florida Tech AIChE Teacher of the Year Award, the Florida Tech Admissions Outstanding Recruiter Award, the College of Engineering Student-Elected Teacher of the Year Award, and the College of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award. He served as the Grand Marshall in six Florida Tech Commencement Ceremonies in 1999, 2021 and 2022.
Dr. Tomadakis has authored a number of technical publications that have been cited extensively by authors reporting research conducted in more than 50 countries around the world. His contributions include the most cited modeling papers of the literature on the transport and structural characteristics of fibrous media and composite materials, with numerous applications in modern technology, the aerospace and automobile industry, biological and biomedical systems and processes, and the manufacturing of everyday goods.
Educational Background
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1993
M.S., University of Rochester, 1990
Diploma, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 1988
Professional Experience
2020-present: Program Chair, Chemical Engineering, Florida Tech
2018-2019: Program Chair, Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Florida Tech
2010-2018: Department Head, Chemical Engineering, Florida Tech
2011-present: Professor, Chemical Engineering, Florida Tech
1999-2011: Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, Florida Tech
1993-1999: Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering, Florida Tech
Selected Publications
Tomadakis, M.M., Fuselier, K., Almeer, F., Ferguson, A., and Cowdrick, V., Transport through Random Bimodal and Multimodal Fiber Structures, Chemical Engineering Science, 212, 115298, 2020.
Heck, H.H., Hall, M.L., dos Santos, R., and Tomadakis, M.M., Pressure Swing Adsorption Separation of H2S/CO2/CH4 Gas Mixtures with Molecular Sieves 4A, 5A, and 13X, Separation Science and Technology, 53, 1490-1497, 2018.
Tomadakis, M.M., Heck, H.H., Jubran, M.E., and Al-Harthi, K., Pressure Swing Adsorption Separation of H2S from CO2 with Molecular Sieves 4A, 5A, and 13X, Separation Science and Technology, 46, 428-433, 2011.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Mitra, K., Transport through Core-Shell Fibrous Biomaterials and Biological Systems, Invited Paper, 3rd Intl. Conf. on Porous Media and its Applications in Science, Engineering and Industry, Kambiz Vafai, Editor, AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1254, pp. 181-186, 2010.
Milano, N. and Tomadakis, M.M., Transport Properties of Fuel Cell Gas Diffusion Media, 3rd Intl. Conf. on Porous Media and its Applications in Science, Engineering and Industry, Conference Proceedings, 2010.
Tomadakis, M.M., Transport through Partly Saturated Beds of Fully wetted Hydrophilic Fibers, Proceedings of the 2009 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Tampa, FL, 2009.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Fuselier, K., Gas Diffusion Layer Fiber Size Distribution and Diffusion Regime Effects on PEM Fuel Cell Performance, Proceedings of the 2009 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Tampa, FL, 2009.
Tomadakis, M.M., Introducing Dimensionless Parameters into the Correlation of NMR Relaxation Time to Transport Properties of Porous Media, Concepts in Magnetic Resonance Part A, 30A, 154-164, 2007.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Rupani, D., Diffusion Controlled Reaction Rate, Survival Probability, and Molecular Trajectory Characteristics in the Bulk, Transition and Knudsen Regime, Chem. Eng. J., 128, 1-10, 2007.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Pentas, K., Prediction of Gas Diffusion Layer Transport Properties and Their Effect on the Performance of PEM Fuel Cells, Proceedings of the 2006 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Orlando, FL, 2006.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Robertson, T. J., Survival and Relaxation Time, Pore Size Distribution Moments, and Viscous Permeability in Random Nonoverlapping and Partially Overlapping Fiber Structures, J. Chem. Phys., 122, 579-588, 2005.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Robertson, T. J., The Viscous Permeability of Random Fiber Structures: Comparison of Electrical and Diffusional Estimates with Experimental and Analytical Results, J. Composite Materials, 39, 163-187, 2005.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Heck, H.H., Utilization of Landfill Gas towards High-BTU Methane and Low-Cost Hydrogen Fuel Production, Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, on-line publication, 2004. http://www.hinkleycenter.com/publications.htm
Tomadakis, M.M., Heck, H.H., Jubran, M.E., and Al-Harthi, K., Utilizing Phosphogypsum Waste towards Hydrogen Fuel Production by Pressure Swing Adsorption Separation of a Biodegradation Gas Product, 2004 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Conference Proceeedings, 2714-2722, 2004.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Robertson, T. J., NMR Relaxation Time in Random and Ordered Arrays of Fibers and its Correlation with Transport Properties, 2004 AIChE Spring National Meeting, Conference Proceedings, 2502-2510, 2004.
Tomadakis, M.M. and Robertson, T. J., Pore Size Distribution, Survival Probability, and Relaxation Time in Random and Ordered Arrays of Fibers, J. Chem. Phys., 119, 1741-1749, 2003.
SELECTED EARLIER WORKS
Tomadakis, M.M. and S.V. Sotirchos. 1996. Transport through Random Arrays of Conductive Cylinders Dispersed in a Conductive Matrix, J. Chem. Phys. 104:6893-6900.
Tomadakis, M.M. and S.V. Sotirchos. 1993. Ordinary and Transition Regime Diffusion in Random Fiber Structures, AIChE J. 39:397-412.
Sotirchos, S.V. and M.M. Tomadakis. 1990. Modeling Transport, Reaction and Pore Structure Evolution during Densification of Cellular or Fibrous Preforms, Chemical Vapor Deposition of Refractory Metals and Ceramics, Materials Research Society
168:73-78.
Research
Numerical investigation of the mass and energy transport characteristics of fibrous media with primary applications in advanced materials processing, fuel cell technology, and biological systems
Mathematical modeling of transport and reaction in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells
Biogas separation through pressure-swing adsorption in molecular sieves
Research & Project Interests
Dr. Tomadakis expertise is in the development of computer simulation algorithms for estimating transport and structural properties of porous and composite materials, and in the mathematical modeling of mass and energy transport and reaction in chemical systems. Current focus is mainly on fibrous media with applications in advanced materials processing, fuel cell technology, and biological systems.