Janet Ellzey

Dr. Janet Ellzey is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and holds the Engineering Foundation Centennial Teaching Fellowship at The University of Texas at Austin. From 2009 to 2017, she was Vice Provost of International Programs. In this position, she managed a staff of more than 150 and a budget of $25M. Prior to joining the Provost's office in 2009, she developed international programs for the Cockrell School of Engineering as assistant dean for international engineering education. She conducted research in the field of combustion for more than 30 years.

As the first Director of Humanitarian Engineering from 2018-25, she built and led an academic program focused on engineering solutions for low-income or marginalized communities. She launched the Certificate in Humanitarian Engineering in 2017. In 2009 in collaboration with Dr. Jim O’Connor in Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, she developed and directed Projects with Underserved Communities, a three-course sequence in which student teams partner with rural communities around the world to build small infrastructure projects such as latrines, community kitchens, and health centers. PUC has completed more than 45 projects in 11 countries. She developed Humanitarian Product Development (HPD), a formal collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in which student teams enroll in a two-course sequence and design products for use in humanitarian response. In 2025, she launched a new partnership with the Kenya Red Cross Society in which a student team led by UT-Austin HPD instructor, Bailey Jones, assesses needs in Kakuma Refugee Camp and then addresses these needs through innovations developed in HPD.

Dr. Ellzey has won three President’s Awards for Global Learning (PAGL), a university-wide program to address global challenges. In 2019-20, she led a team of two other faculty and four students that partnered with the Lebanese Red Cross to test a device developed at UT-Austin to fabricate sanitary pads for women in refugee camps. In 2022-23 with Dr. Julie Zuniga from the School of Nursing, Dr. Ellzey won her second PAGL and led a team of 14 students to develop no-cost interventions to prevent bedsores in patients at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in El Doret Kenya.  In 2024-25, she partnered with Dr. Farya Phillips to lead a team of 15 students to assess the impact of previous PUC projects in India.

Dr. Ellzey earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and her doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. She joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 1990.

Dr. Ellzey earned the Women in Engineering Student Advocate Award in 2005 and in 2011 she was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She has held research fellowships in both France and the United Kingdom. In 2018, she was elected as an Inaugural Fellow of the Combustion Institute. She was the Russell Springer Severence Professor at University of California at Berkeley in 2019. During 2020-21 she was a Jefferson Science Fellow at the United States Agency for International Development. 

Selected Publications

1. P.P. Radyjowski, J.L. Ellzey, “Experimental Study on the Influence of Gas-Solid Heat Transfer in a Mesoscale Counterflow Combustor,” Comb. Sci. Tech. Nov 2021 https://doi.org/10.1080/00102202.2021.2003792
2. P.P. Radyjowski, I. Schoegl, and J. L. Ellzey, “Experimental and Analytical Investigation of a Counterflow Reactor at Lean Conditions,” Comb. Sci. Tech. May 2021, DOI: 10.1080/00102202.2021.1938017.
3. J.L. Ellzey, E.L. Belmont, C.H. Smith, “Heat Recirculating Reactors: Fundamental Research and Applications,” Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, vol. 72, May 2019 pp. 32-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pecs.2018.12.001
4. J.L. Ellzey, J.T. O’Connor, and J. Westerman, “Projects with Underserved Communities: A Case Study of an International Service Learning Program,” Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 145(2), 2019.
5. E. Belmont, T. Ombrello , M. Brown , C. Carter , J. Ellzey, “Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Freely Propagating Flames Stabilized on a Hencken Burner,” Comb. Flame (162) pp.2679-2685, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2015.03.025
6. D.J. Gilbert, M.L. Held, J.L. Ellzey, W.T. Bailey, L.B. Young, “Teaching ‘community engagement’ in engineering education for international development: Integration of an interdisciplinary social work curriculum,” European Journal of Engineering Education (40), pp. 256-266, 2014 DOI: 10.1080/03043797.2014.944103
7. E.L. Belmont, P.P. Radyjowski, and J.L. Ellzey, “Effect of geometric scale on heat recirculation and syngas production in a non-catalytic reformer”, Combust. Sci. Tech (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00102202.2014.978864 .
8. M. Toledo, F. González, J. Ellzey, “Hydrogen Production from Methanol and Ethanol Partial Oxidation,” Energy and Fuels, 28, pp.3453-3459, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1021/ef500352v
9. E.L. Belmont and J.L. Ellzey, “Lean Heptane and propane combustion in a non-catalytic parallel-plate counter-flow reactor. Comb. Flame (161)pp. 1055-62, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2013.10.026
10. C.H. Smith, D.I. Pineda, C.D. Zak, and J.L. Ellzey, “Conversion of Jet Fuel and Butanol to Syngas by Filtration Combustion,” J. Hydrogen Energy (38), pp. 879-889, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.10.102,
11. C.H. Smith, D.I. Pineda, and J.L. Ellzey, “Syngas Production From Burner-Stabilized Methane/Air Flames: The Effect of Preheated Reactants”, Comb. Flame (160) pp. 557-564, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2012.10.022.
12. E.L. Belmont, I. Schoegl, and J.L. Ellzey, “Experimental and Analytical Investigation of Lean Premixed Methane/Air Combustion in a Mesoscale Counter-flow Reactor”, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute (34) pp. 3361-3367, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2012.06.087