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Hall
of Distinction |
Updated:
06/05/07
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L.
Berkley Davis, Jr.
 L.
Berkley Davis, Jr. is at the center of power.
Electric power, that is. Dr. Davis is known internationally for innovations
leading to the development and worldwide implementation of low-nitrous-oxide-emission
gas turbines for electric-power generation.
For more than three decades, his contributions to combustion evolution
have made their mark at General Electric and in the power industry at
large. As a result, in 2006, he earned one of the highest honors in
the engineering profession -- election to the National Academy of Engineering.
Members are elected to NAE membership by current NAE members. Members
have distinguished themselves in business and academic management, in
technical positions, as university faculty and as leaders in government
and private engineering organizations. Dr. Davis' membership citation
made note of his innovations leading to the development of low-nitrous-oxide
emission gas turbines.
To say the least, engineering was a topic of interest in the Davis household
as Dr. Davis was growing up in Owensboro. His late father, Lewis Berkley
Davis, Sr. was a UK engineering graduate and is also a member of the
Hall of Distinction. While his father's career made engineering part
of daily life from early
childhood, it was around age 15 that Dr. Davis began to develop a serious
interest in the field, inspired partly by flying lessons and an overall
interest in aviation.
His college decision was influenced by the many UK-related stories his
father had told. Dr. Davis earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical
engineering in 1966. Faculty members such as Robert Drake, Clifford
Cremers, John Lienhard and Roger Eichhorn, the department chair at the
time, had a positive influence on his undergraduate experience.
While the family background
may have drawn him to UK for undergraduate studies, his decision to
pursue Master's and Ph.D. degrees at UK was made based on what he saw
during his undergraduate days -- a commitment by UK President John W.
Oswald to improve the quality of the institution. Especially important
to Dr. Davis' future as a graduate student was the naming of Dr. Robert
Drake as dean of the College of Engineering. Dr. Davis recalled that
Dean Drake built a strong engineering program at UK during his tenure.
Dr. Davis earned a Master's degree at UK in 1970 and a Ph.D., also from
UK, in 1972. He worked on an unusual topic as he pursued his Ph.D. --
energy transfer in fur.
"In many cases, research for an advanced degree will be focused in a
narrow way, perhaps an analytical study or perhaps a piece of research,"
Dr. Davis said. "The fur problem includes all modes
of heat transfer and to do a good job with this problem, it was necessary
to develop a theoretical basis for each and then to validate the theory
with specific experiments. This is a 'soup to nuts' approach to tackling
complex problems and has been of great value in my subsequent career."
Career advancement came quickly. Dr. Davis joined General Electric and
very soon moved into a leadership role on one of the vital issues facing
the company -- anticipating and solving problems
related to emission controls, which were growing tighter.
Over the years, he has earned a reputation for excellence in improved
design practices, computational fl uid dynamics tool development and
control schemes. His valuable and imaginative technical contributions
have met the difficult challenge of reducing emissions with higher firing
temperatures of high-technology gas turbines. Dr. Davis is known for
his expertise in land-based gas turbine systems engineering, combustion
design and emissions control.
He calls the work on low emissions systems for power plants the most
diffi cult work he has done, but also the most satisfying, because it
involved taking a new technology and making it work in an actual power
plant. Building and running a strong crossfunctional engineering team
was also a challenging and rewarding part of the work.
Dr. Davis was named a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
in 2000, another in a long list of honors and awards. He also received
the General Electric Steinmetz Award in 1991, and several other internal
awards from GE, including the Intellectual Property Award for Outstanding
Issued Patent in 2005, Outstanding Technical Contribution in 2000, Six
Sigma Award in 1999 and the Business Initiatives Award in 1994. He holds
20 patents related to gas combustion.
Since 1998, Dr. Davis has
held the position of chief engineer, systems, at GE. He and his wife,
Kathy, reside in Niskayuna, New York.
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