Alexandra Techet

Alexandra Hughes Techet is an American mechanical and marine engineer whose work involves experimental and image-based studies of hydrodynamics. She is a professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology department of mechanical engineering.^[1]

Techet grew up as a sailor and diver in coastal North Carolina.^[2] She studied mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, graduating in 1995. She then studied oceanographic engineering through a joint graduate program between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, earning a master's degree in 1998 and completing her Ph.D. in 2001.^[3]

After postdoctoral research at Princeton, she returned to MIT as Doherty Assistant Professor of Ocean Utilization in the department of ocean engineering.^[3] In 2005 she became an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, as part of a broader merger of MIT's ocean engineering and mechanical engineering departments.^[2] She was promoted to full professor in 2019.^[4]

Techet's research contributions include a study of the ability of archerfish to jump out of water in search of prey,^[5][6] and high-speed video capture of sneezes.^[7]

During the COVID-19 lockdown, she has also been active in providing home gardening advice to the MIT community through the MIT Office of Sustainability.^[8]

Techet was named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2018.^[9]

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