Department of Mechanical Engineering

W. Ross Morrow

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering,
with a Courtesy Appointment in the Department of Economics

2104 Black Engineering Building
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 50011-2161
Phone: 515-294-4690
e-mail: wrmorrow@iastate.edu

Links
Personal Page: http://www3.me.iastate.edu/morrow

Education
B.S., Mechanical Engineering. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 2001
M.S., Applied Interdisciplinary Mathematics, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 2008
M.S., Mechanical Engineering. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 2008
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering. University of Michigan Ann Arbor, 2008

Areas of Interest
Engineering design; environmentally benign engineering; environmental regulatory policy and engineering design; numerical methods for nonlinear problems; optimization and equilibrium problems; models of consumer choice

Biosketch
Dr. Morrow's research focuses on developing mathematical models and methods for coupled engineering/economic systems to inform environmental policy that relies on both engineering technology and market behavior. His PhD dissertation concerned a central game-theoretic model, Bertrand-Nash equilibrium pricing, and providing new theoretical results and robust numerical methods for computation of equilibrium prices in markets with large numbers of products and state-of-the-art stochastic demand models.

Following his PhD, Dr. Morrow studied transportation policy options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Energy Technology Innovation Policy group at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Economics, Dr. Morrow will continue researching numerical methods for large-scale game-theoretic models of engineering/economic systems, and undertake new research on economy-wide energy modeling that incorporates uncertainty and its impact on decision making. Dr. Morrow teaches classes on mechanical engineering design and mathematics in engineering at Iowa State. He has taught mechanical engineering design classes at the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Selected Publications

  • Morrow, W.R. & Skerlos, S.J. (2008) “Fixed-Point Approaches to Computing Bertrand-Nash Equilibrium Prices Under Mixed Logit Demand” In revisions at Operations Research. 
  • Morrow, W.R. & Skerlos, S.J. (2008) “On the Existence of Bertrand-Nash Equilibrium Prices Under Logit Demand” Submitted to The Journal of Industrial Economics. 
  • Morrow, W.R., Qi, H., Kim I., Mazumder, J., & Skerlos, S.J. (2007) "Environmental aspects of laser-based and conventional tool and die manufacturing." Journal of Cleaner Production 15(10). pg 932-943.
  • Skerlos, S.J., Morrow, W.R., & Michalek, J.J. (2005) "Sustainable Design Engineering and Science: Selected Challenges and Case Studies." In Sustainability Science and Engineering, Vol 1. M.A. Abraham editor Elsevier, pg. 477-525.