Justin W. Garvin, professor of instruction in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, shares why he focuses on the fundamentals.

Tell us about your hometown; how did it shape you?

Believe it or not, I grew up in Iowa City. I did leave and live in Florida to do research for the Air Force for a little while, but I came back when my wife, a professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, got a job here.

Tell us about your hobbies/outside interests.

When I am not busy having family fun with my wife and kids, I spend my time learning about physics topics that I am interested in (other than my own expertise) as well as training with weights and paying attention to what is new in the world of fitness. During the summer, I will golf with my dad about once a week. In addition, my wife and I had done a little bit of amateur ballroom dancing competitions, but since the kids, we have not participated in any nor have we practiced.

What is your favorite hang out place?

Probably home in all honesty...I guess I am a homebody. But I also like going to Pizza Ranch and my folk's house with the kids.

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

Interesting question...I guess a lion since my son is currently into Lion King.

What attracted you to the University of Iowa?

My family basically is a University of Iowa family. 

How would you explain to a child what you do?

I teach people how to build/design/analyze machines based off mathematics, computing, and the science of heat and fluids.

What is the best advice you received as a student and do you still follow that advice today?

My dad told me before I went to college to pay particular attention to calculus and my other math classes. While that is pretty specific, I ultimately think what he was implying was: focus on the fundamentals. In engineering, particularly for freshmen and sophomores, your fundamentals are going to be your math, science (particularly physics), and computing classes. Knowing those well will set you up nicely as you move on to your upper-level (and beyond) coursework. Focusing on the fundamentals was the best advice I received as a student and one I still follow myself to this day.

Tell us about a project or achievement of which you are particularly proud.

I like to hear when students tell me (after they have graduated) that whatever I taught them has helped them out in their careers or in their graduate studies elsewhere. In particular, I have had a number of students who have gone on to do PhDs in various prestigious institutions and have told me that what they had learned in various courses they took of mine gave them a leg up on their peers.

What changes are on the horizon for your work or your discipline?

I have been considering a future book topic that would attempt to explore some commonalities (either mathematical or physical) between my formal areas of expertise (which are fluid dynamics, heat and thermodynamics) and other areas of physics, particularly areas considered to be "modern" physics topics such as quantum mechanics or general relativity.

What piece of advice would you give to today's students?

Two things: 1) Focus on the fundamentals and 2) nothing good happens after midnight.

Where do you see your career taking you?

I suppose I hope to continue to teach engineering students while, at the same time, write books about topics that I find interesting and that I feel I have something useful to share. Even though I am currently not doing any major research and have not done so in quite a while, occasionally I start to get a little research itch. I can be a little picky on the topics I am interested in but the nice thing about being an instructional faculty member is that I have extreme flexibility in areas I wish to learn about or pursue. I don't think that I would have that kind of flexibility or even mental bandwidth if I were in a more traditional faculty position constantly worrying about funding and publishing output.

In closing, what words of wisdom would you like to share, what quotation or person inspires you, what does the next chapter look like?

I guess I would just like to say thank you for the opportunity to share a little about myself with the good people at the University of Iowa. Go Hawks!