Profile Photo: Gitogo Churu, Ph.D.

Gitogo
Churu, Ph.D.

Phone: 903.233.3955
Email: GitogoChuru@letu.edu

  • Professor, Mechanical Engineering


Education

Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX.  

M.S., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. 


 EXPERIENCE

  • Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, LeTourneau University, Longview TX  
  • Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering LeTourneau University, Longview TX 
  • Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, LeTourneau University, Longview TX  
  • Visiting Research Professor, Ames National Laboratory, Ames Iowa.  
  • Lecturer for Experimental Solid Mechanics, and Theory of Viscoelasticity, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX December   
  • Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Advanced Materials, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX 
  • INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE: Mercury Marine Boat Company, Stillwater, OK. Grade 8 machinists, Sterndrive assembly, Sterndrive paint, Engine assembly and warehouse technician. 

 COURSES TAUGHT

  • MEGR4443 Machine Design  
  •  ENGR4823 Senior Design II 
  •  ENGR2313 Materials Engineering  
  • ENGR4813 Senior Design I 
  •  MEGR3323 Mechanics of Materials  
  • ENGR2704 Project Management Design and Entrepreneurship  
  •  ENGR1523 Introduction to Engineering Practice II  
  •  MEGR2023 Dynamics  
  •  MEGR2013 Statics 
  • MEGR5963 Experimental Mechanics of Composite Materials  
  • MEGR5973 Advanced Mechanics of Materials 

 RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Nano-structured materials 
  • High performance Thermal and Sound insulation materials  

 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  1. Book Chapter: Huiyang Luo, Sadeq Malakooti, Habel Gitogo Churu, Nicholas Leventis, Hongbing Lu; Mechanical Characterization of Aerogels, Book Chapter, Springer handbook, Accepted and published late 2023.  
  2. John Tixier, Gitogo Churu, Jeffrey Gladstone, Nolan Van Gaalen, Engineering Education in Developing Nations: Progress on the School of Engineering at Northrise University in Ndola, Zambia; Christian Engineering Conference Proceedings, 2022 
  3. N. Leventis, C. Sotiriou-Leventis, S. Donthula, G. Churu, H. Lu, S. Mahadik-Khanolkar, Organic And Metallic Aerogels, Composition for The Organic and Metallic Aerogels, and Method for Manufacturing The Organic and Metallic Aerogels; United States Patent: Patent No.: 11,104,764 B1, issued August 31, 2021. 
  4. Sadeq Malakooti, Habel Gitogo Churu, Alison Lee, Saman Rostami, Samuel John May, Suzie Ghidei, Fen Wang, Qun Lu, Huiyang Luo, Ning Xiang, Chariklia Sotiriou- Leventis, Nicholas Leventis, Hongbing Lu; Sound Transmission Loss Enhancement in an Inorganic-organic Laminated Wall Panel using Multifunctional Low-Density Nanoporous polyurea Aerogels: Experiment and Modelling. J. of Advanced Engineering Materials, 2018, 1700937 
  5. Sadeq Malakooti, Saman Rostami, Habel Gitogo Churu, Huiyang Luo, Jenna Clark, Fabiola Casarez, Owen Rettenmaier, Solheil Daryadel, Majid Minary-Jolandan, Chariklia Sotiriou- Leventis, Nicholas Leventis, Hongbing Lu; Scallable, hydrophobic and Highly-stretchable Poly(isocyanurate-Urethane) Aerogel; J. of Royal society of Chemistry, (RSC Adv. 2018, 8, 21214-21223 
  6. Sadeq Malakooti, Habel Gitogo Churu, Alison Lee, Tingge Xu, Huiyang Luo, Ning Xiang, Chariklia Sotiriou- Leventis, Nicholas Leventis, Hongbing Lu; Sound insulation properties in low-density, mechanically strong and ductile nanoporous polyurea aerogels; Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, September 2017.  
  7. Nicholas Leventis, Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis, Adnan M. Saeed, Suraj Donthula, Hojat Majedi Far, Parwani M. Rewatkar, Helmut Kaiser, J. David Robertson, Hongbing Lu, and Gitogo Churu; “Nanoporous Polyurea from a Triisocyanate and Boric Acid: A Paradigm of a General Reaction Pathway for Isocyanates and Mineral Acids”, (J. Chemistry of materials), Chem. Mater. 2016, 28, 67−78  
  8. Gitogo Churu, Barbara Zupančič, Dhairyashil Muhite, Clarissa Wisner, Huiyang Luo, Igor Emri, Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis, Nicholas Leventis, Hongbing Lu, “Synthesis and Mechanical Characterization of Mechanically Strong polyurea-crosslinked, Ordered Mesoporous Silica Aerogels”, Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, DOI 10.1007/s10971-015-3681-9, March 2015.  
  9. Shruti Mahadik-Khanolkar, Clarissa Wisner, Gitogo Churu, Hongbing Lu, Nicholas Leventis and Chariklia SotiriouLeventis, “Polybenzoxazine Aerogels: Synthesis, Characterization and Conversion to Carbon and Graphite Aerogels”, Proceedings Published 2013 by the American Chemical Society.  
  10. Fu, B.; Luo, H.; Wang, F.; Churu, G.; Chu, K. T.; Hanan, J. C.; Sotiriou-Leventis, C.; Leventis, N.; Lu, H. “Simulations of Microstructural Evolution of a Polymer Crosslinked Templated Silica Aerogel under High- Strain-Rate Compression”, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 2011, 357, 2063-2074.  
  11. N. Leventis, C. Sotiriou-Leventis, S. Mulik, A. Dass, J. Schnobrich, A. Hobbs, E. F. Fabrizio, H. Luo, G. Churu, Y. Zhang, H. Lu, “Polymer Nanoencapsulated Mesoporous Vanadia with Unusual Ductility at Cryogenic Temperatures”, Journal of Materials Chemistry, 18, 2475 – 2482, 2008 (highlighted as a “hot article” in the journal) Paper Weblink: https://pubs.rsc.org/jm/article-abstract/18/21/2475/240229/Polymer-nanoencapsulated-mesoporous-vanadia-with?redirectedFrom=fulltext 
  12. Nicholas Leventis, Sudhir Mulik, Xiaojiang Wang, Amala Dass, Vishal U. Patil, C. Sotiriou-Leventis, Hongbing Lu, Gitogo Churu, Alex Capecelatro, “Polymer Nano-encapsulation of Templated Mesoporous Silica Monoliths for Improved Mechanical Properties”, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 354, 632-644, 2008.  
  13. H. Luo, G. Churu, E. F. Fabrizio, J. Schnobrich, A. Hobbs, A. Dass, S. Mulik, Y. Zhang, B. P. Grady, A. Capecelatro, C. Sotiriou-Leventis, H. Lu, N. Leventis, “Synthesis and Characterization of the Physical, Chemical and Mechanical Properties of Isocyanate-Crosslinked Vanadia Aerogels”, Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology, 48, 113-134, 2008.  
  14. Sudhir Mulik, Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis, Gitogo Churu, Hongbing Lu and Nicholas Leventis, “Crosslinking 3D Assemblies of Nanoparticles into Mechanically Strong Aerogels by Surface-Initiated Free Radical Polymerization”, Chemistry of Materials, 20, 5035-5046, 2008, DOI 10.1021/cm800963h.  
  15. Nicholas Leventis, Chariklia Sotoriou-Leventis, Dhairyashil P. Mohite, Zachary J. Larimore, Joseph T. Mang, Gitogo Churu, Hongbing Lu, Polyimide aerogels by ring-opening metathesis, polymerization (ROMP)”, J. Chemistry of Materials, 2011, vol. 23, Iss. 8, p 2250-2261.  
  16. Nicholas Leventis, Chariklia Sotoriou-Leventis, Naveen Chandrasekaran, Sudhir Mulik, Zachary J. Larimore, Hongbing Lu, Gitogo Churu, Joseph T. Mang, “Multifunctional polyurea Aerogels from Isocynates and Water: A structure-property Case Study”, J. Chemistry of Materials, 2010, Vol, 22, Iss. 24, P6692-6710.  

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS PAPERS   

  1. G Churu, J A Demko, K Kimminau, D Lantz, H McGuire, G Van der Weil, M Field, S Malakooti, S L Vivod, “Thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of polymeric aerogels for cryogenic insulation applications,” Invited Paper M1Or2C-04, Cryogenic Engineering Conference, Honolulu, HI, July 9-14, 2023. 
  2. G. Churu, J. A. Demko , A. Mole, R. C. Duckworth, H. Lu, S. Malakooti, N. Leventis; “Thermal Properties of Isocyanate Derived Organic Aerogels for Cryogenic Insulation Applications”, IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 756 (2020)012007 doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/756/1/012007  
  3. J A Demko, R C Duckworth, G Churu and W Hassenzahl, “Analysis of the Thermal Recovery of HTS Cables after an Overcurrent Fault, IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 755 (2020)012137 doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/755/1/012137 
  4. N. Xiang, F. Wang, Q. Lu, G. Churu. T. Xu, A. Lee, N. Leventis, H. Lu; Experimental evaluation of a Dustile Aerogel as damping layers in gypsum wallboards for increased sound transmission loss; 42nd Annual conference on Accoustics, DAGA 2016,  Aachen Germany, March 14-17, 2016. 
  5. Gitogo Churu, Tingge Xu, Ning Xiang, Nicholas Leventis, Hongbing Lu, “Acoustic Attenuation in Aerogels”, The 9th International Conference of Time Dependent Materials, 2014.  
  6. Shruti Mahadik-Khanolkar, Clarissa Wismer, Gitogo Churu, Hongbing Lu, Nicholas Leventis, Chariklia Sotoriou-Leventis, “Polybenzoxazine Aerogels: Synthesis, Characterization and conversion to Carbon and Graphite Aerogels”, Abstracts of papers of the American Chemical Society, 2013,245  
  7. Gitogo Churu, Hongbing Lu, Nicholas Leventis, “Nano-Engineering Silica Aerogel Structure to Determine the Property-Structure Relationship”, Proceedings of the ASME 2009 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, IMECE2009-12318.  
  8. Hongbing Lu, Huiyang Luo, Gitogo Churu, Sudhir Mulik, Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis and Nicholas Leventis, “Crosslinked templated mesoporous silica aerogels as multifunctional materials”, SAMPE Fall Technical Conference and Exhibition multifunctional materials: working smarter together: September 8 - 11, 2008, Cook Convention Center, Memphis, Tennessee.  
  9. Cameron Fackler, Ning Xiang, Gitogo Churu, Dhairyashil P. Mohite, Nicholas Leventis, Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis, Hongbing Lu, “Experimental investigation of the acoustic attenuation by monolithic polyurea aerogels”, Institute of Noise Control Engineering, INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON congress and conference proceedings, 2012, 9, p2678-2682.  
  10. Hongbing Lu, Huiyang Luo, Gitogo Churu and Nicholas Leventis, “Dynamic Compressive Behavior of Crosslinked Silica Aerogels”, sem.org-2006-SEM-Ann-Conf-s21p05.  
  11. Huiyang Luo, Gitogo Churu, Nicholas Leventis and Hongbing Lu, “Compressive Behavior of MesoporousSilica Aerogels at High strain Rates”, sem.org-2007-SEM-Ann-Conf-s05p02.  
  12. H. Lu, H. Luo, G. Churu, S. Mulik, C. Sotiriou-Leventis and N. Leventis, “Compressive Behavior of Crosslinked Mesoporous Aerogels at High Strain Rates”, Proceedings of the XI th International Congress and Exposition, Society for Experimental Mechanics inc. June 2-5, 2008 Orlando, Florida USA  
  13. Naveen Chandrasekaran, Sudhir Mulik, Zachary Larimore, Gitogo Churu, Hongbing Lu, Chariklia Sotoriou- Leventis, Nicholas Leventis, “Efficient one-step synthesis of mechanically strong, flame retardant polyurea aerogels”, 2010, Abstract of Papers of the American Chemical Society, Amer. Chemical Sol.  
  14. Nicholas Leventis, Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis, Naveen Chandrasekaran, Sudhir Mulik, Chakkaravarthy Chidambareswarapattar, Anand Sadekar, Dhairyashil Mohite, Shruti S. Mahadik, Zachary J. Larimore, Hongbing Lu, Gitogo Churu and Joseph T. Mang, “Isocyanate-Derived Organic Aerogels: Polyureas, Polyimides, Polyamides”, 2010 MRS Fall Meeting.  

OTHER SIGNIFICANT PRODUCTS 

  1. Patent: N. Leventis, C. Sotiriou-Leventis, S. Donthula, G. Churu, H. Lu, S. Mahadik-Khanolkar, Organic and Metallic Aerogels, Composition for The Organic and Metallic Aerogels , and Method for Manufacturing the Organic and Metallic Aerogels; United States Patent: Patent No.: 11,104,764 B1, issued August 31, 2021.