Faculty Directory

Mohammad Abbas

Assistant Teaching Professor

Yezad Anklesaria

Assistant Teaching Professor

Research Interests

Aircraft and Spacecraft Structures, Vibrations, Vibro-acoustic Testing, Design Optimization, Finite element analysis, Embedded Systems, and and Experimental methods

David Bayless, P.E.

Professor/Department Chair/Interim Director of NASA Missouri Space Grant Consortium

Research Interests

Air Pollution Control, Algae, Algal Bio-fuels, Alternative Fuel, Bio-reactor, Biodiesel, Blue-Green Algae, Coal, Energy, Gasification of Coal and Biomass, Leadership Development, Mechanical Engineering, Power Generation, and Shale and Shale Energy

Richard Billo

Distinguished Professor/Director of Kummer Center for Advanced Manufacturing

Research Interests

Advanced manufacturing, industrial information systems, metallurgy, and liquid fuels processes

Douglas Bristow

William E. Walker III Professor/Director of the Center for Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies

Research Interests

Dynamic modeling and control of micro- and nano-positioning systems, atomic force microscopes and additive manufacturing systems; volumetric error compensation; iterative learning control, multi-dimensional control, and signal processing.

K. Chandrashekhara

Curators' Distinguished Professor

Research Interests

Composite Materials and Structures, Additive Manufacturing of Polymer Composites and Metal Cellular Structures, High Temperature Composites, Smart Structures, Bio-composites, Composite Manufacturing, Experimental Characterization, Finite Element Analysis, and Process Modeling.

Lokeswarappa Dharani

Chancellor’s Professor

Research Interests

Aircraft structures, fracture mechanics, fatigue and failure analysis; micromechanics; composite materials and structures; process modeling of ceramic matrix composites; friction and wear of composites; and fracture of laminated glazing.

Xiaosong Du

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

Machine Learning; Artificial Intelligence; Aircraft Design Optimization; Electric Drones

Fateme Fayyazbakhsh

Assistant Research Professor

Research Interests

Smart biomaterials, biofabrication, wound healing, medical device commercialization

Daoru (Frank) Han

Associate Professor

Research Interests

Plasma aerospace applications; Space propulsion; Plasma-material interactions; Plasma physics and rarefied gas dynamics; High-performance computing

Kelly Homan

Associate Professor

Research Interests

Fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and thermodynamics of energy systems. Heat and mass transfer in buoyant flows, second-law and exergy analysis, numerical simulation of transport phenomena and experimental methods.

Serhat Hosder

James A. Drallmeier Centennial Professor

Research Interests

Computational aerodynamics/aerothermodynamics, hypersonic flows and technologies, uncertainty quantification, planetary entry/descent/landing of spacecraft, computational fluid dynamics, aerodynamic shape optimization, robust design, numerical methods.

Ryan Hutcheson

Teaching Professor

Research Interests

Design theory and methodology, complex systems design and vehicle dynamics.

Donna Jennings

Assistant Teaching Professor

Research Interests

Educational Research, Small Satellites, Astrodynamics, Orbital Mechanics, Spacecraft Mission Design

Umit Koylu

Professor

Research Interests

Conventional Energy (combustion, IC engines, coal power plants, fluid and heat transport), Alternative Energy (characterization of solid oxide fuel cells, modeling of fuel cells, hydrogen technologies, alternative fuels, clean coal technologies), Environmental Science & Technology (air pollutants, particulates, measurement techniques), Various Fields (synthesis of nanoparticles, laser diagnostics, fire safety, thermal engineering)

K. Krishnamurthy

Professor

Research Interests

System dynamics, control, robotics, and neurotechnologies.

Nishant Kumar

Teaching Professor/ Associate Chair for Undergraduate Affairs

Research Interests

Nonlinear Dynamics and Vibrations, study of deterministic and random dynamical systems, model order reduction, theoretical modeling and numerical computation and structural dynamics.

Bo Mi Lee

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

Multifunctional materials, nanocomposites, multiscale/multiphysics modeling, advanced manufacturing, wearable technology, and data-driven approaches

Ming Leu

Curator’s Distinguished Professor/Bailey Distinguished Professor/Director of Innovative Smart & Additive Manufacturing Laboratory

Research Interests

Rapid prototyping, additive manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, virtual reality, CAD/CAM, robotics, mechatronics and automatic control. 

Zhi Liang

Associate Professor

Research Interests

Micro/nanoscale thermodynamics and heat transferDynamics of nanodroplets, nanobubbles, and nanoparticlesStructure-property relationship for materials and interfaces, and Computational modeling

Frank Liou

Bytnar Professor/Director of Manufacturing Engineering Program

Research Interests

Metal additive manufacturing process design, modeling, integration, monitoring, and control; CAD/CAM.

Warner Meeks

Associate Teaching Professor

Research Interests

Thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, aircraft design, propulsion, and plasma physics.

Jacob Miller

Professor of Practice

Research Interests

Additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping, traditional machining and manufacturing techniques, explosive breaching, explosively formed penetrators

Phillip Mulligan

Assistant Professor

J. Keith Nisbett

Chancellor’s Professor

Research Interests

Kinematics, mechanical design and synthesis of mechanisms.

Anthony Okafor

Professor

Research Interests

Manufacturing including machining, metalforming, machine tool dynamics, acoustic emission, sensors and signal processing, CNC, CAD/CAM, machine tool metrology, neural network and expert system applications; smart structures including intelligent health monitoring and damage assessment of composite structures; non-destructive evaluation.

Jonghyun Park

Professor

Research Interests

Advanced li-ion battery, beyond li-ion battery, energy storage system, renewable energy system, grid energy storage, nano, macro-mechanics of materials, self-assembly of nanoparticles, nanostructure, multiphysics, multiscale experiment and simulation.

Smriti Nandan Paul

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

(Astro)dynamics, space domain awareness/space situational awareness, space traffic management, space weather, stochastic machine learning techniques, GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control) for space sustainability and missions, computer vision, and space autonomy. 

Chaoying Pei

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

Non-convex optimization; Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programs (QCQPs); Optimal control; Space exploration technology; Machine learning; Distributed computing

Henry Pernicka

Curators' Distinguished Teaching Professor

Research Interests

Astrodynamics, orbital mechanics, spacecraft design, spacecraft mission design, satellite attitude dynamics, nonlinear analysis, dynamics and control, optimization.

Jillian Schmidt

Associate Teaching Professor

Research Interests

Design theory, materials and structures, educational research.

Yun Seong Song

Associate Professor

Research Interests

Physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI), Physical Human-Human Interaction (pHHI), Human Movement Assistance, Rehabilitation Robotics, Wearable Devices, Energy-Harvesting from Human Movement, Design and Instrumentation of Medical Devices.

Daniel Stutts

Associate Professor

Research Interests

Dynamics, vibrations, modeling and development of piezoactuators and transducers-mechatronics, mechanics of bone, structural dynamics, optimal design, acoustics, design and modeling of ultrasonic piezoelectric actuators and transducers, dynamic parameter estimation, and vibration mitigation

Davide Viganò

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

High-speed experimental aerodynamics, hypersonic and high-enthalpy flows, compressible turbulence, supersonic vortex dynamics, laser-based flow diagnostics, ground facilities development. Visit my lab website for more information.

Xiaodong Yang

Professor/Associate Chair of Graduate Affairs

Research Interests

Optical materials and devices in nanophotonics and plasmonics; Physics and applications of optical metamaterials; Nanoscale optomechanics, optical nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS); Integrated optofluidic devices and optical sensors; Photon management for solar/thermal energy harvesting; Optical device micro-/nano-fabrication.