Letter of Recommendation, Jacob Chung

1. College of Engineering PO Box 116250
D epartment of M echanical and Aerospace Engineering Gainesville, FL 32611-6250
Tel: (352) 392-0961
Fax: (352) 392-7303
http:/ / w w w .mae.ufl.edu/
To Whom It May Concern
March 22, 2012
Re: Letter of recommendation for Dr. Trevor Snyder
Dear Sir/Madam:
It gives me tremendous pleasure to write this letter for the purpose of providing a fair and impartial
assessment on the qualification, capability and accomplishment of Dr. Trevor Snyder. I was Dr. Snyder’s
academic advisor during his graduate studies, which he started in August, 1992, and finished in August 1996,
when he was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Washington State University.
Therefore I am very familiar with his professional qualifications, accomplishment and character quite well.
Over my academic career so far, which has spanned more than 33 years, during which I have had the fortune
to work and be around with many outstanding engineers and scientists, it is my absolute opinion that Dr.
Snyder is among the top of all the outstanding students I have had the chances to meet and work with at both
Washington State University (WSU) and the University of Florida. Without a doubt, I would rank him the
very best out of the 25 graduate students who received their doctoral degrees under my supervision at both
institutions.
Trevor came to me right after he graduated in May of 1992 with a near perfect 4.0 gpa and the number one
ranking of his undergraduate class. With my recommendation, he applied and was awarded the very
prestigious NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) fellowship for four years. Starting in the
fall of 1992, for the next four years, Trevor made history and created records at WSU. Single handedly he
designed and built the world’s first 2.1-second air-bag decelerated drop tower. After Trevor demonstrated the
successful and flawless operation and superior performance of the new drop tower, engineers from NASA
Glenn Research Center came to learn from our air-bag design and replaced the sand-pit deceleration system
with a similar air-bag system for their 2.2-second drop tower that reduced the impact force from 75 g to 15 g.
This huge reduction in the impact force made it possible to run experiments with sophisticated instrument and
devices that could not tolerate high impact forces. The drop tower has since provided more than 100 drops
without a single accident. Because of the drag shield design, the g-levels were found in the range of 10-5g to
10-4g that provided an environment that really simulated the actual space conditions such as those in the space
shuttle and international space station. The drop tower accomplishment completely demonstrated Trevor’s
innovative nature and strong hands on capability.
On the research and development side, Trevor published a total of 12 papers as a result of only four years
work. Again, so far that is a record in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at WSU. Most
students publish 2-5 paper. It is very hard for me to imagine that someone would break this record someday.
Out of the 12 papers, they represent a good mixture of theoretical, analytical, numerical and experimental
work. If you were to look closely into the contents of those papers, you would find that a wide spectrum of
subjects are covered and no repetitions. In other words, the quality of the publications is very high as they

2. were all published in leading archival journals in the respective subject areas such as the International Journal
of Heat and Mass Transfer and Journal of Heat Transfer, the two top journals in heat transfer.
In summary, Dr. Snyder is among the best engineering students and researchers that I have ever known. He is
highly innovative and welcomes challenges with open arms. His drop tower work at WSU and his 48 US
patents for the past 15 years in industry speak for the fact. In addition to his strong hands-on capability in
performing high quality experiments, he is extremely intelligent with deep analytical abilities. On top of the
above traits, Trevor is a workaholic with high ethics standard. He completed both Master and Ph.D degrees in
four years with unsurpassed accomplishments, that serves as the proof of his hard-working principle.
If you have any questions concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Jacob N. Chung, Ph.D. and P.E.
Andrew H. Hines, Jr./Progress Energy Corporation Eminent Scholar Chair Professor
Director of Microgravity and Microsystem Heat Transfer Lab
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of Florida
An Equal Opportunity Institution