James Palko

James Palko is assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Merced, where his research focuses on heat transfer and thermal management for electronics. Palko earned his undergraduate degree from Arkansas Tech University before completing his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where his fellowship began in 1997. His research addresses the critical challenge of removing heat from increasingly dense electronic systems, developing microfluidic and phase-change cooling technologies that enable the next generation of high-performance computing and power electronics.