Professor Margaret Wooldridge is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is an internationally recognized expert on sustainable and conventional power generation for the stationary and transportation sectors, with special emphasis on sustainable fuels and high efficiency power and propulsion systems. Her work focuses on combustion, fluid mechanics and thermodynamics including combustion chemistry of biofuels and fossil fuels; improving engine and cycle efficiencies; safety; pollution mitigation; reburn and co-firing technologies; reaction kinetics; aerosol sampling and transport; optical diagnostics; gas dynamics.
Professor Wooldridge is also an international leader in engineering education. She pioneered the class Advanced Energy Solutions at the University of Michigan in 2006 which has subsequently grown to capacity enrollment every semester, serving over 300 students every year. This course includes introduction to the thermodynamic principles for power generation for the stationary and transportation sectors. She is also the instructor for the massive open online course (MOOC) Introduction to Thermodynamics: Transferring Energy from Here to There. Over 10,000 online learners have participated annually in the MOOC since she started offering the class in 2013.