Dr. M. Katherine Banks, vice chancellor and dean of engineering, has appointed Dr. David Staack the Pioneer Natural Resources Faculty Fellow I in Mechanical Engineering in recognition of his many accomplishments and future potential. The endowed faculty fellowship appointment was effective June 1.
Staack is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He joined the Texas A&M engineering faculty in January 2009. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in 2008. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia.
Staack won the prestigious NSF CAREER Award in 2011 and also received the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award in 2013.
Staack’s research interests include plasma engineering; non-thermal plasmas; micro- and nano-scale plasmas; electric propulsion for spacecraft; plasma enhanced materials processing and synthesis; plasma enhanced fuel conversion and combustion; biomedical plasma applications; and laser and spectroscopic diagnostics.