Core Faculty

Donald Bliss, Professor - Dr. Bliss has broad research interests in fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, acoustics, and structural dynamics. His work emphasizes improved understandings of physical phenomena and the development of innovative ways to solve important engineering problems.

Chuan Hua Chen, Assistant Professor - Dr. Chen's research involves physicochemical hydrodynamics at the micro and nanoscale where transport and interfacial phenomena closely interact with each other. Two core subjects are electrohydrodynamic transport for fluid manipulation at both nanometer and nanosecond scales, and bioinspired interfaces for capillarity-driven autonomous microsystems. Chen is closely integrating experiment and theory to develop innovative microfluidics and nanofluidics for applications ranging from biochemical assays to microelectronics cooling.

Earl H. Dowell, William Holland Hall Professor - Dr. Dowell's research encompasses the broad field of aeroelasticity, acoustics, nonlinear dynamics, structural dynamics, and unsteady aerodynamics.

Kenneth C. Hall, Julian Francis Abele Professor - Dr. Hall specializes in unsteady aerodynamics, structural dynamics, and aeroelasticity of turbomachinery and aerospace vehicles; novel approaches to modeling complex physical phenomena using computational fluid dynamics; optimization and sensitivity analysis; and fluid dynamics of animal propulsion.

Laurens E. Howle, Professor - Dr. Howle's research interests span the disciplines of thermal science, fluid dynamics, and nonlinear dynamics. His present research projects - visualization of convective fluid patterns, stabilization of the no-motion state in free convection and bifurcation in imperfect or distributed parameter systems - are split evenly between experimental and computational methods.

Robert Kielb, Associate Chair - Dr. Kielb conducts research and supervises graduate students in the areas of unsteady aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, mistuning, damping, and probabilistic methods; principal investigator on AFOSR, DARPA, NASA, and Industrial funded research projects; provides consultion services to turbine engine companies, including most major companies; and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in mechanical engineering with emphasis on vibration and design.

Jonathan Protz, Assistant Professor - Dr. Protz's research interests include propulsion and power generation at the micro scale; dynamics and control of microsystems; and financial valuation, modeling, and analysis of engineered systems in aerospace and defense.

Edward J. Shaughnessy, Professor - Dr. Shaughnessy's research focuses on analytical, experimental, and computational studies of flow problems arising in biology, medicine, and biotechnology, as well as in more traditional mechanical engineering applications.