2023 AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Research Awarded to Rodney D. Bowersox, Texas A&M University Written 12 December 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lecture will be Delivered on 23 January, During 2023 AIAA SciTech Forum

December 12, 2022 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce the 2023 AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Research is awarded to Rodney D. Bowersox, Associate Dean for Research, Ford I Professor of Aerospace Engineering, and University Regents Professor at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Bowersox will deliver his lecture, “Hypersonic Wall Bounded Viscous Flows: Theory, Ground Test, and Flight,” Monday, 23 January, 1800 hrs ET, during the 2023 AIAA SciTech Forum, National Harbor, Maryland. Registration is open to attend in person or online. Journalists can request a Press Pass here.

The Dryden Lectureship in Research is one of the most prestigious lectureships bestowed by the Institute. Since the inaugural lecture in 1961, it has been a catalyst for sharing research advancements and knowledge. This premier lecture is named in honor of Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, a renowned aerospace leader and a director of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA, as well as the first deputy administrator of NASA when the agency was created in 1958. The award emphasizes the importance of basic research in advancing aeronautics and astronautics.

Bowersox is an Associate Dean for Research, Ford I Professor of Aerospace Engineering, and University Regents Professor at Texas A&M University. He received his bachelor of science, master of science, and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in 1988, 1990, and 1992, respectively. He founded and directs the Texas A&M University National Aerothermochemistry and Hypersonics Laboratory. He is the TEES Executive Director for the OUSD Joint Hypersonics Transition Office (JHTO) University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics. Bowersox is a Fellow of AIAA and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. He is a 2017-2022 DoD Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow.

This lecture will speak on national interest in hypersonic flight that provides motivation for accurate simulation of viscous flows at high speeds. Bowersox will explain the approach in developing and validating turbulence closure for flows with mechanical or thermochemical nonequilibrium. First, an overview of key hypersonic viscous flow challenges is presented. This is followed by a description of second-order turbulence transport theoretical treatment, with comparison to DNS and LES data from the literature. Experimental and additional numerical results are then described, which examine the role of mechanical and thermochemical nonequilibrium on the structure, statistics, and modeling of hypersonic turbulent flow. These data were acquired in the Texas A&M University National Aerothermochemistry and Hypersonics Laboratory. The lecture will conclude with highlights from the recent AFOSR boundary-layer turbulence (BOLT II in Memory of Mike Holden) hypersonic flight experiment, which was successfully launched from NASA Wallops Flight Facility on 21 March 2022. The flight experiment has provided new data to quantify the transition mechanisms and subsequent evolution of turbulence for a geometry with concave curvature and highly swept leading edges.

For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards program, contact Patricia A. Carr at patriciac@aiaa.org.

Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, APR, RebeccaG@aiaa.org, 804.397.5270 (cell)

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