Faculty Research Interests

Dr. Basil Antar

Dr. Antar's main research thrust has been the study of gravity fields on fluid motion and transport phenomena for space applications. This includes production of biological and electronic crystals in space, the storage and acquisition of cryogenic fuels in space, and the design of heat exchanger for space applications. He has designed and operated several experiments aboard the Space Shuttle and the KC-135 aircraft to gain a better understanding of low-gravity heat and mass transport.

Dr. Bruce Bomar

Research interests include analog and digital signal processing, embedded instrumentation and wireless sensors, digital systems design including field programmable logic and hardware description languages, and microelectronics.  Current research involves high-speed PC-based data acquisition and signal processing and miniature embedded instrumentation for high-temperature and high-G environments.

Dr. Ying-Ling Chen

Current research activities include Laser spectroscopy applications: Laser-induced initiation, CFDRC rocket health diagnostics and Visual science applications: Computational evaluation of ocular screening algorithm, Cornea (dry eye, cornea scars, keratoconus) and lens (cataract) screening instrumentation, Pediatric vision screening instrumentation, Ophthalmic measurement simulation for medical training, and Race-, age-, and gender-specified eye modeling.

Dr. Stephen Corda

Research interests include flight testing, hypersonic aerodynamics and propulsion, atmospheric and earth/ocean flight science, an airborne astronomy.

Dr. Horace Crater

Dr. Crater’s work is in the area of theoretical physics, mainly relativistic quantum and classical mechanics, classical and quantum field theory; Two-Body Dirac equations with applications to the quark models for mesons, the electron-positron system, nucleon-nucleon scattering, meson decay, meson-meson scattering, the quark-gluon plasma; Dirac’s Hamiltonian Constraint Dynamics with applications to the N-body problem in electrodynamics; the problem of the relativistic center of mass and its applications to orbits.

Dr. Lloyd Davis

Interest lie in three areas of physics - Experimental : non-linear optics, quantum optics, ultrafast laser phenomena, femtosecond spectroscopy, applied optics, optical design, single-photon detectors and electronics, laser-material and laser-plasma interactions; Interdisciplinary : single-molecule detection and spectroscopy, biophotonics, biophysics, chemical physics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, genomic technology, advanced microscopy; and Numerical : Monte Carlo simulations, cluster computing; Theoretical physics: fundamental quantum theory

Dr. Gary Flandro

Research projects include application of computational fluid dynamics methods in solid rocket motor design, nonlinear combustion instability, effects of vorticity transport in unsteady rocket flows, effects of hypersonic vehicle flight attitude on scramjet thrust vector, flow-driven pressure oscillations in large segmented rockets, and dynamics of slag motion in spinning combustion chambers.

Dr. William Hofmeister

Professor Hofmeister is Director of the Center for Laser Applications and is involved in research using lasers for fabrication and modification of materials particularly on the nanoscale. He has contributed to the science of nucleation and solidification kinetics and is engaged in research on diamond films for microelectronics, nanomaterials, surface modification, and high-temperature, erosion resistant materials.

Dr. Jacqueline Johnson

Main research thrust has been the characterization of amorphous materials. This includes the study of glasses, glass-ceramics, and amorphous diamond-like carbon films. She is currently working on an NIH project to develop a new mammography system in collaboration with scientists from Germany and SUNY, Stony Brook. A new x-ray imaging plate is being developed from a zirconium fluorochlorozirconate glass matrix seeded with barium chloride nanoparticles doped with an optically active rare earth. Dr. Johnson with synthesize the plates on a small scale and characterize them using DSC, XRD, ion chromatography, and photoluminescence in the laboratory. More extensive experiments will be conducted at national laboratory facilities. Materials Research Development Inc. is responsible for scale-up of the plate.

Dr. Boris Kupershmidt

Research interests include those areas of mathematical physics that deal with the dynamics of conservative systems: particles, fields, fluids, plasmas, etc., and mostly with those systems that exhibit regular behavior (the so-called "integrable systems", both classical and quantum).

Dr. Joseph Majdalani

My research is focused on: application of multi-directional vortex motion to liquid and hybrid rocket engines, improving core flow models in solid and hybrid rockets, and developing global methodologies for assessing and suppressing acoustic instabilities in large combustors.

Dr. Trevor Moellor

Dr. Moeller has broad interests in plasma physics and electromagnetics. Areas of interest include:
modeling and testing of electric propulsion devices, electromagnetic acceleration, plasma diagnostics, generation of nonthermal plasmas for chemical processing and surface treatment, utilization of plasmas for hydrogen production and materials processing

Dr. Thad Morton

Fundamental research on drag and heat transfer of axisymmetric bodies, general method for predicting flow separation, development of new mathematical techniques in fluid dynamics.

Dr. Trevor Moulden

Worked on Transonic flow problems including airfoil design and plume induced separation on missiles. General interest in viscous flow problems. Currently concerned with turbulent fluid motion. Has worked in Government Research Facilities, Industry and in the Academic Environment.

John Muratore

Professor Muratore's research interests include the use of advanced instrumentation and flight simulation to improve flight testing and the use of airborne science instrumentation for studying the earth's environment. Mr Muratore is particularly interested in the application of advanced information systems technologies such as improved data acquisition, networked sensors, real time mission monitoring and global positioning systems to improve flight test and airborne science flight operations.
Mr. Muratore is also performing research on the use of motorglider aircraft as small environmental research aircraft for improved atmospheric, ocean and earth resources monitoring.

George Murray

Dr. Murray’s research interests are centered on developing methods for the sequestration and ultra-trace determination of toxic or useful substances in real samples. The means to this goal involves the production of molecularly imprinted materials for sequestration and as specific polymer sensors. Laser spectroscopy is used for sensor transduction and verification and laser processing is used to obtain specific form factors. Materials are also prepared for direct electronic or electrochemical transduction using electro-active polymers with imprinted polymer receptors.

Dr. Christian Parigger

Dr. Parigger has research interests in experimental and theoretical physics, particularly in electromagnetic interactions, quantum optics, atomic and molecular physics. He has experience in argon-ion and narrow-line dye lasers, high vacuum physics, digital electronics, sub-picosecond laser systems, optical pico-second amplifiers, nano-second pulsed eximer and dye lasers. His research includes time-resolved spectroscopy; high power phenomena; laser induced plasma physics; and spectroscopic temperature measurements using atomic lines and molecular spectra.

Dr. Alfonso Pujol

Present research deals with determining the validity of synthetic aperture radar's ability to image submerged objects, including submarines. The research acquires SAR oceanic and estuarine water surfaces data in three formats: processed recorded digital data on magnetic tape, photographic images, and digitally processed photographic images. Initial data analysis is performed by using photo interpretation techniques, with later expansion to digital and photogrammetric techniques.

Richard Ranaudo

Professor Ranaudo has developed and taught a well received course, "In-Flight Icing and Its Effects on Aircraft Handling Characteristics." He also continues to work with the U.S. Air Force regarding Spatial Disorientation and with General dynamics regarding Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAW's).

Dr. Roy Schulz

He has done research on projects that define required conditions for simulating the general mixed-precipitation atmospheric flow conditions (air, liquid water drops, and ice crystals) for turbine engines in ground test facilities as well as condensation in supersonic nozzles. His current work includes the J85 afterburning turbojet engine test facility as an advanced diagnostic probe test bed. Dr. Schulz was instrumental in developing the program in partnership with AEDC.

Dr. Gregory Sedrick

Research interests include: Strategic Planning in Technical Organizations, Commercialization of Intellectual Properties, Workforce Development, and Engineering Management and Leadership.

Dr. L. Montgomery (Monty) Smith

Dr. Smith works in a variety of fields involving the use of electrical engineering in multidisciplinary research.  Research interests include electro-optics, image processing, digital signal processing, and statistical data analysis.  His recent research has involved interferometric investigation of plasma sources, analysis of signals from strain gauges, and the application of communication theory principles to engine test telemetry.

Dr. Peter Solies

Advancement of Aero-Space vehicle technology, design optimization, applied aerodynamics, powered lift, stability and control, composite structures, and human factors engineering.

Dr. John Steinhoff

Most of my research has involved the treatment of vortex-dominated flows in computational fluid dynamics and the treatment of short wave equation pulses, including the solution of real problems of engineering importance.

Dr. Ahmad Vakili

Dr. Vakili's areas of interest include: basic flow control, industrial flows, flow control applied to mixing and combustion control. He has over 25 years of experience in theoretical, computational and applied research in the aerospace and mechanical engineering related fields. He has developed a high speed carbon fiber spinning process for pitch based carbon fiber production and is interested in carbon fiber production process technologies and carbon based composite materials development.

Dr. Bruce Whitehead

Dr. Whitehead works primarily in data-driven software systems, with an emphasis on aerospace applications. Current and completed projects include software architectures for propulsion system test analysis, 3-D audio cuing for airplane navigation, embedded systems for data acquisition, evolutionary neural network architectures, and neural network applications to fault detection in engine testing.

Dr. Zhongren Yue

Dr. Zhongren Yue’s research interests include: Preparation, surface modification, and characterization of high-performance carbon fibers; Fabrication and characterization of fiber reinforced composites; Design and synthesis of high surface area, porous materials; and Advanced materials (adsorbents, ion exchangers, and membranes) for water and air purification.