Faculty

Stephen Baek is an Associate Professor of Data Science at the University of Virginia, where he also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Professor Bart-Smith joined the University of Virginia faculty in the fall of 2002. Dr. Bart-Smith came to UVA from Princeton University where she worked at the Princeton Materials Institute with A.G. Evans. Bart-Smith has founded the Multifunctional Materials and Structures Laboratory and the Bio-inspired Engineering Research Laboratory.

He joined the University of Virginia in 1965 and to recognize his outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching efforts, Taylor Beard was named Lucien Carr Associate Professor for the year 1997-98. He served as an American Specialist for the U. S. State Department's International Communications Agency, lecturing in Pakistan on solar energy.

David’s research group conducts experimental and theoretical studies of energy transport/conversion mechanisms and material properties across multiple length scales and temperature ranges. The primary motivation is the thermal management of hypersonic vehicles, electronic devices, and other engineering systems.

Professor Chelliah is currently serving as the Program Director for Combustion and Fire Systems in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems at the National Science Foundation (NSF). His research interests are vast and include fundamental investigations on interaction of finite-rate kinetics with transport.

Jeff Crandall served as the Director of the University’s Center for Applied Biomechanics from 1994-2019. His research focuses on understanding human response and injury in automobile safety, sports, and military protection. He has experience with experimental biomechanics spanning the length scales of tissue samples to whole body cadavers.

Chen Cui's current research interests are on spacecraft electric propulsion, space environment, and computational plasma physics. Chen Cui's work focuses on the high-fidelity, fully kinetic modeling of plasma dynamics in spacecraft electric propulsion thrusters, solar wind, and other applications related to low-temperature plasmas.

Dedic received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University in 2012 and 2017, respectively. After graduation she worked as a visiting scientist with the National Institute of Aerospace at NASA Langley Research Center and joined the University of Virginia as an assistant professor in 2018. Dedic is an active member of the AIAA.

Prior to joining UVA as an Associate Professor in 2012, Dr. Dong was an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Wright State University. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA in 2003. After completing his doctorate, he spent three years as a post-doctoral researcher at the George Washington University.

Jason Forman's research includes the development and biofidelity evaluation of anthropomorphic test devices, the execution of  impact biomechanics in simulated automobile environments, the development of injury risk functions with dummies and computational models, analysis for injury risk evaluation, and investigating the effects on injury risk.

Xinfeng Gao's research is focused on the development of high-performance computing (HPC) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) algorithms for a wide range of applications in aerospace and mechanical engineering, involving shock waves, turbulence, combustion, plasma, and multifluids. 

Gavin Garner joined the University of Virginia faculty in 2009. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Colby College and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia in both Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. 

George T. Gillies' current research interests include medical device development, clinical magnetic manipulation systems, and precision measurement technology. He has authored or co-authored over 300 publications and holds  30 U.S. Patents. He is the co-inventor of the “EpiAccess” system for obtaining minimally invasive pericardial access.

Professor Goyne, after groundbreaking research at his alma mater University of Queensland, Australia, and UVA Engineering, continues his work in hypersonic air-breathing propulsion, supersonic aerodynamics, hypersonic ground and flight test techniques, diagnostic and measurement technique development, controls and advanced manufacturing.

Our group focuses on the synthesis of well-defined nanoparticles, their dispersion into polymer solutions and melts, and their suspension rheology. With our fundamental studies, we seek to optimize processing to achieve a desirable microstructure in industrial suspensions, and to set a foundation for developing constitutive rheological models.

Dr. Hartka is currently board certified in Emergency Medicine and works clinically in the Emergency Department. He is also involved in medical student education, resident education, biomechanical instrumentation, and motor vehicle collision analysis.

Prof. Herakovich specializes in fibrous composite materials. He founded the NASA Virginia Tech Composites Program, authored and edited many books, and held key roles in engineering organizations. Athletically known as "Rocky," he led in football scoring in 1958 and later coached at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Patrick E. Hopkins is a Whitney Stone Professor in Engineering at the University of Virginia, with a primary appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and courtesy appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Physics. He is also the director of the ExSiTE Lab.

Dr. Kent is the Frederick Tracy Morse Professor and Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Virginia, and co-Founder of the UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics.

Prof. Kerrigan's research in injury biomechanics uses data analysis, computational modeling, and mechanical experiments with human tissue to prevent and mitigate injuries to motor vehicle occupants and athletes. Right now he is working on occupant protection for future vehicles, shoe-turf interaction mechanics, and characterizing injury tolerance.

Knospe has worked on a variety of research problems, including magnetic levitation, vibration control, control of machining chatter, and stability and performance of time-delay systems. Dr. Knospe has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, and Mechatronics.

Professor Lagor's current research interests focus on estimation and control for autonomous systems interacting with their fluid environments. He received his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland in 2017, prior to which he worked for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company where he was a Certified Principal Engineer.

Prof. Eric Loth serves as the Rolls-Royce Commonwealth Professor of Engineering.  Loth’s current research focuses on extreme-scale wind turbines, energy-storage systems, multiphase flow, and aerospace propulsion. 

4D Diagnostics & Thermal-Fluids​
Development of novel diagnostics with 4D spatiotemporal resolution to study combustion, propulsion and fluid dynamics

Dr. Panzer is the Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Post-Doctoral Affairs for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, a Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia, and the Deputy Director at the Center for Applied Biomechanics.

Dr. Park is the associate director of the Foot and Ankle Fellowship at UVA and is the team foot and ankle surgeon for UVA Athletics. His research interests include injury biomechanics, sports-related injuries to the foot and ankle, tendon reconstruction, ankle replacement, bone grafting and biomechanical properties of orthopedic implants.

Jesse Quinlan works as a senior aerospace engineer in the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch and leads a team with a focus on applications to large, commercial, transport aircraft for the NASA Advanced Air Transport Technology Project. At the AATT he manages the development and execution of aircraft development, design, and technology assessment.

Associate Professor Quinn first came to the University of Virginia as an undergraduate student in 2006. After graduating, he left to get his PhD at Princeton University, then returned in 2017 to be on the UVA faculty.

Dr. Ann Reimers retired as a full-time educator at UVa in May of 2023, but continues as a part-time academic advisor to Mechanical Engineering students.  She is excited to be able to focus on supporting her advisees in their academic, emotional and professional growth.

Russell's research interests lie in the increased understanding of the mechanisms of human movement

Ethan joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2023. In addition to teaching, he is active in research and helps to manage the UVA ExSiTE Lab. Ethan's research interests focus on the development and application of experimental techniques, to analyze heat and energy transfer in extremes of material size and environment.

Sun joined UVA as an associate professor in 2021. Prior to her position at UVA, Sun was an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan Technological University.

Dr. Tang's research program centers on the structure-mechanics relationships of hierarchical biological materials and their clinical and biomedical applications. Many biological tissues, such as our own skeleton, perform a diverse range of functions with remarkable mechanical properties. These exceptional properties arise from the functional 

Selected by NASA in May 1984, Thornton is a veteran of four space flights: STS-33 in 1989, STS-49 in 1992, STS-61 in 1993, and STS-73 in 1995. She has logged over 975 hours in space, including more than 21 hours of extravehicular activity (EVA). She was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2010.

Dr. Ward received a B.S. (1998) in Chemical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology with a minor in Applied Mathematics, M.S. (2001) in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and Ph.D. (2003) in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dean West is a transformational researcher, award-winning teacher and mentor, inventor and entrepreneur. Her research focuses on the use of biomaterials, nanotechnology and tissue engineering, applying engineering approaches to studying biological problems and solving unmet medical needs, particularly in the fight against cancer. 

Dr. Houston G. Wood is Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has been a leader in the Northeast Chapter of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM). He has held visiting positions at Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique, Saclay, France, among many others.

Dr. Xu joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The University of Virginia in the fall of 2014. He received his PhD in Mechanics and Materials from Columbia University in 2012 and was a Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2012 to 2014.