Arun Majumdar has been named the 2006 winner of ASME's Heat Transfer Memorial Award. The award is bestowed on individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of heat transfer through teaching, research, practice and design, or a combination of such activities.  

Each award is based on achievement through publications, patents or inventions, in an area of heat transfer or through the application of science or art of heat transfer. One award may be made annually in each of the three following categories: the science of heat transfer, the art of heat transfer, or the general subject of heat transfer.

The award was established by the Heat Transfer Division in 1959 and operated as a division award until 1974 when it was elevated to a Society award. 

Arun Majumdar received a B.Tech in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) in 1985 and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989, for research conducted in the laboratory of Professor Chang-Lin Tien. After being on the faculty of Arizona State University (1989-92) and University of California at Santa Barbara (1992-96), he began his faculty appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.

He currently holds the Almy and Agnes Maynard Chair Professorship in the College of Engineering. Majumdar's research interests are in the broad area of mechanics and transport in nanostructured materials. Of particular current interest are phonon dynamics and transport in low-dimensional materials, materials and devices for thermoelectric energy conversion, transport and reactions in confined liquids (nanofluidics), chemomechanics of small and macromolecules with applications in chem/biosensing, and nanoscale imaging.

In addition to his faculty appointment, Majumdar serves as director of the Berkeley Nanosciences and Nanoengineering Institute. He is also a member of the Nanotechnology Technical Advisory Group to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He was the founding chair of the ASME Nanotechnology Institute and is currently a member of the Council of Materials Science and Engineering, U.S. Department of Energy. He also serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Molecular and Cellular Biomechanics, and is the editor-in-chief of Micro/Nanoscale Thermophysical Engineering.

Majumdar is a recipient of the Institute Silver Medal from IIT-B (1985), NSF Young Investigator Award (1992-97), ASME Melville Medal (1992), the Best Paper Award of the Heat Transfer Division of ASME (1993), Gustus Larson Memorial Award of the ASME (2001), and Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT-B (2002). He is a fellow of ASME and AAAS and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.