Two researchers in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University were recently awarded the Nakayama medal at the 14th International Conference on Fluid Control, Measurements and Visualization (FLUCOME) at the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. William Saric, Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering, was awarded the Nakayama medal for giving the keynote talk. His presentation was on “Flight Experiments on Discrete Roughness Element Technology for Laminar Flow Control.”
Saric has been a professor in the department since January 2005. He is a registered professional engineer in Virginia and was an aerospace engineering evaluator for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He received the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Award in 2003, the G.I. Taylor Medal from the Society of Engineering Science (SES) in 1993 and the Scientific Achievement Award from the advisory group for aerospace research and development (AGARD) for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1996. In 2006, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for “contributions to the fundamental understanding and control of shear-flow and boundary-layer transition.”
Saric has established two major wind tunnel research facilities and a flight research center at Texas A&M, and was the director of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research/NASA National Center for Hypersonic Laminar-Turbulent Transition Research. Most recently, he has conducted experimental and flight research on stability, transition and control of two-dimensional and three-dimensional boundary layers for subsonic aircraft, supersonic aircraft and reentry vehicle applications.
Dr. Christopher Limbach, research assistant professor, was awarded the Nakayama medal with special recognition as a young researcher. His presentation was on “Visualization and Applications of Femtosecond, Nanosecond and Dual-Pulsed Laser-Induced Plasmas.”
Limbach joined the department in January 2017. He is director of the Laser Diagnostics and Plasma Devices Lab (LDPDL) at Texas A&M. He obtained bachelor’s degrees in engineering physics and astronomy from the University of Arizona in 2009 and a doctoral degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University in 2015. Before coming to Texas A&M, Limbach was a research scientist at Colorado State University where he studied novel laser plasma sources and techniques for gas and multiphase combustion ignition. At Texas A&M he has been leading the development of advanced, non-intrusive laser diagnostic techniques for measuring plasma parameters and species composition in dissociated, ionized and non-equilibrium flows with applications to ground test facilities, propulsion, plasma science and plasma chemical processing. He is also leading investigations of gas, plasma and liquid phase transport phenomena with applications to two-phase flows, sprays, aerosol science and droplet combustion.
The Nakayama medal was established by the FLUCOME International Steering Committee in memory of Professor Y. Nakayama, FLUCOME founder and distinguished international leader in the flow visualization community.