Prof. Alexandra (Alex) Techet is currently a Professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering at MIT in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.  She first got the ocean bug as a kid growing up on the coast of North Carolina sailing and fixing boats.  An avid sailor, SCUBA diver and water-polo player, Alex is drawn to water both in and out of the lab. 

She received her B.S.E. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 1995 from Princeton University and then graduated from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanographic Engineering with a M.S. in 1998 and a Ph.D. in 2001.  In 2002, after a post-doc at Princeton University in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Prof. Techet returned to MIT as an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Ocean Engineering.  In 2005, Prof. Techet joined the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at MIT when the two departments merged.  She also holds a guest appointment at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and works with researchers there to develop oceangoing instrumentation.  Professor Techet was a recipient of the 2004 ONR Young Investigators Award.  Her imaging work has been recognized several times by the APS Gallery of Fluid Motion and has been featured on the cover of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.