16 Facts About Sheldon Weinbaum

Sheldon Weinbaum is a CUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering at The City College of New York.

Sheldon Weinbaum is a member of all three US national academies and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Sheldon Weinbaum was the founding director of the New York Center for Biomedical Engineering, a regional research consortium involving the BME program at The City College and eight of the premier health care institutions in New York City.

Sheldon Weinbaum has been a lifelong advocate for women and minorities in science and engineering.

Sheldon Weinbaum was the inaugural chair of the Selection Committee that chooses the annual Sloan Awardees for the outstanding math and science teachers in the New York City public high schools and served in this position from 2009 to 2019.

Sheldon Weinbaum's parents are Alex Weinbaum, who emigrated to the US from Russia in 1921, and Frances Weinbaum.

Sheldon Weinbaum attended Jamaica High School, Queens, and Abraham Lincoln High School, Brooklyn, and received his bachelor's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Aeronautical Engineering in 1959.

Sheldon Weinbaum earned his MS in Applied Physics 1960 and his PhD in Engineering 1963 from Harvard University where he was a Gordon McKay Prize and then National Science Foundation Fellow.

Sheldon Weinbaum subsequently worked for the Avco Everett Research Laboratory and the General Electric Space Sciences Laboratory in Valley Forge, where he did research in high altitude aerodynamics.

Sheldon Weinbaum developed what is referred to as the Weinbaum-Weiss model of the high altitude laminar near wake.

Sheldon Weinbaum became active in the anti-war movement of the 1960s and returned to academia in 1967 as an associate professor in the Department Mechanical Engineering at The City College of New York.

Sheldon Weinbaum was promoted to professor in 1972, became a Herbert G Kayser Chair Professor in 1980 and a CUNY distinguished professor in 1986.

Sheldon Weinbaum has proposed a new concept for a high speed train where lift is generated by a giant ski riding on a soft porous material in a channel with impermeable side walls.

Sheldon Weinbaum has been instrumental in the development of the biomedical engineering program at The City College of New York and CUNY.

Sheldon Weinbaum is recognized as a pioneering advocate for women and minorities in science and engineering.

In 2020 Sheldon Weinbaum received the PAESMEM Award from the White House for his excellence in mentoring of underrepresented minority students.