Mark Drela Appointed Editor-in-Chief of AIAA’s Journal of Aircraft Written 20 January 2023

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 20, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has selected Mark Drela, Terry J. Kohler Professor of Fluid Dynamics in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as its new Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Aircraft (JA). He succeeds Eli Livne, the Boeing Endowed Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington, who has served as the fifth Editor-in-Chief for JA since 2011. Drela, the sixth editor-in-chief for JA, will begin this new role in January 2023.

The AIAA Publications Committee oversees the search and selection effort for new editors-in-chief. This year’s search committee was led by Jacqueline A. O’Connor, Pennsylvania State University, Publications Committee member. Drela was chosen from among a group of highly qualified candidates.

“The fields of aircraft engineering and aeronautics in general are vital to the global transportation system, to national defense, and to the international economy, and their importance is only growing. The Journal of Aircraft is a valuable venue for advancing engineering knowledge, tools, 
and methods that are critical to developing new aeronautical concepts, vehicles, and systems to further the field. It is an honor to have been selected as its new Editor-in-Chief.” said Drela.

Drela, an AIAA Fellow, holds a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Ph.D. in Computational Fluid Dynamics in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics with a Minor in Applied Mathematics and Structures from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Some of his recent awards and honors include the 2022 ASME IGTI Turbomachinery Committee Best Paper Award, the 2018 AIAA Reed Aeronautics Award, and the 2017 AIAA Theoretical Fluids Best Paper. Drela’s research interests consist of aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, design methodology, computation-based design, and low-order modeling of aeromechanical systems.

The Journal of Aircraft is devoted to the advancement of the applied science and technology of airborne flight through the dissemination of original archival papers describing significant advances in aircraft, the operation of aircraft, and applications of aircraft technology to other fields.

Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, RebeccaG@AIAA.org, 804-397-5270 cell

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The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.