American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
 Thermophysics Technical Committee

 Thermophysics Best Paper Award

This award, established by the Thermophysics Technical Committee in 1982, is awarded for excellence in the technical content of an AIAA paper combined with presentation quality. Professional achievement is recognized by identifying one contribution in a year as the Best Paper. The Committee, based on the recommendation of the Best Paper Subcommittee, may confer a Best Paper Award each year based on the following description: The purposes of the Best Paper Award are to motivate participants in the sessions sponsored by the Thermophysics Committee toward excellence in technical content and presentation of papers and to recognize professional achievement by identifying one contribution as the best paper.

This award is designated for the deliverance of an outstanding paper, and not simply the best paper given at a meeting. As such, it is not mandatory to present the award every year. A list of all recipients of the Best Paper Award is presented below. The award consists of a Certificate of Merit.

All AIAA papers are available in the AIAA Online Library. This database allows you to search for and order a copy of the paper online and for papers from recent years view the first page of each paper. A direct link to each paper within the database can be found by clicking on the paper number in the table below.

Recipients of the Thermophysics Best Paper Award

Year Author(s) Title Paper Number
2007 A. Van Foreest, A. Gulhan, B. Esser, M. Sippel, B.A.C. Ambosius, and K. Sudmeijer Transpiriation Cooling Using Liquid Water AIAA 2007-4034
2006 A. Heltzel, S. Theppakuttai, S. Chen, and J. Howell Excitation of Surface Plasmons with Gold Microspheres AIAA 2006-3427
2005 H. Lee, Q. Zhu, and Z. Zhang Radiative Properties of Anisotropic Microrough Silicon Surfaces AIAA 2005-5209
2004 D. Bose, M. Wright, and T. Gökçen Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis of Thermochemical Modeling for Titan Atmospheric Entry AIAA 2004-2455
and Ye. A. Bondar, G. N. Markelov, S. F. Gimelshein, and M. S. Ivanov DSMC Modeling of Near-Continuum Flow over a Wedge with Real Gas Effects AIAA 2004-1183
2003 T. N. Dinh, J. P. Tu, A. T. Dinh, and T. G. Theofanous Nucleation Phenomena in Boiling on Nanoscopically Smooth Surfaces AIAA 2003-1035
2002 K. Fujita, and T. Abe State-to-State Nonequilibrium Rotational Kinetics of Nitrogen behind a Strong Shock Wave AIAA 2002-3217
2001 M. Wright, M. Loomis, and P. Papadopoulos Aerothermal Analysis of the Project Fire II Afterbody Flow AIAA 2001-3065
2000 D. A. Levin, and S. F. Gimelshein Modeling of OH Vibrational Distributions Using Molecular Dynamics with the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method AIAA 2000-2432
and T. J. Horvath, S. A. Berry, N. R. Merski, and S. M. Fitzgerald X-38 Experimental Aerothermodynamics AIAA 2000-2685
1999 J. E. Leland, R. Ponnappan, and K. S. Klasing Experimental Investigation of an Air Micro-Jet Array Impingement Cooling Device AIAA 99-0476
1998 P. A. Gnoffo, R. D. Braun, K. J. Weilmuenster, R. A. Mitcheltree, W. C. Engelund, and R. W. Powell Prediction and Validation of Mars Pathfinder Hypersonic Aerodynamic Data Base AIAA 98-2445
1997 D. R. Olynick, Y.K. Chen, and M. E. Tauber Forebody TPS Sizing with Radiation and Ablation for the Stardust Sample Return Capsule AIAA 97-2474
1996 W. Congdon Thermal Radiation Characteristics of the Mars Heat Shield Material for Flight Data Analysis AIAA 96-1888
1995 K. A. Comeaux, D. R. Chapman, and R. W. MacCormack Analysis of the Burnett Equations Based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics AIAA 95-0415
1994 M. M. Yovanovich, P. Teertstra, and J. R. Culham Modeling Transient Conduction from Isothermal Convex Bodies of Arbitrary Shape AIAA 94-1976
1993 V. K. Dogra, J. M. Price, and J. N. Moss Near-Wake Structure for a Generic ASTV Configuration AIAA 93-0271
and S. L. Keeling A Strategy for the Optimal Design of Nozzle Contours AIAA 93-2720
1992 S. P. Sharma, S. M. Ruffin, W. D. Gillespie, and S. A. Meyer Nonequilibrium Vibrational Population Measurements in an Expanding Flow Using Spontaneous Raman Spectroscopy AIAA 92-2855
1991 R. A. Ahmad, and Z. H. Qureshi Laminar Mixed Convection from a Uniform Heat Flux Horizontal Cylinder in a Crossflow AIAA 91-0383
1990 D. Wu, and G. P. Peterson Investigation of the Transient Characteristics of a Micro Heat Pipe AIAA 90-0060
1989 G. V. Candler On the Computation of Shock Shapes in Nonequilibrium Hypersonic Flows AIAA 89-0312
1988 No Award No paper was judged to be of sufficient merit
1987 G. A. Bird Nonequilibrium Radiation during Re-entry at 10 km/s AIAA 87-1543
1986 R. J. Hansman, Jr. Experimental Measurements of Heat Transfer from an Surface during Artificial and Natural Cloud Icing Conditions AIAA 86-1352
1985 C. Park On Convergence of Computation of Chemically Reacting Flows AIAA 85-0247
1984 N. Ghaddar, A. T. Patera and B. Mikic Heat Transfer Enhancement in Oscillatory Flow in a Grooved Channel AIAA 84-0495
1983 M. M. Yovanovich, and A. A. Hegazy An Accurate Universal Contact Conductance Correlation for Conforming Rough Surfaces with Difference Micro-Hardness Profiles AIAA 83-1434

Nominations: Nomination forms for the Best Paper Awards are distributed in every Thermophysics session at the Aerospace Sciences Meeting in January, and at the Thermophysics Conference in the Summer. Any member of AIAA who attended the session at which the paper was presented may submit nominations. Submission of nominations immediately following the session is encouraged. However, nominations may be submitted to the Best Paper Award chair at any time prior to September 1st of the calendar year in which the paper was presented. An AIAA member for each meeting may submit only one Best Paper nomination. A copy of the preprinted paper should accompany each nomination.
A Nomination form may be downloaded here.

Award Year: The year designated for the Best Paper Award is the calendar year from which the papers were presented at the Aerospace Sciences Meeting and the Thermophysics Conference. The Award is presented at the Thermophysics Conference in the following year.

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