It is a great pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. Rodney Bowersox as the interim head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, effective July 1, 2012.
Dr. Bowersox joined the faculty of Aerospace Engineering in 2002. He received his BS (1988), MS (1990) and PhD (1992) in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has held prior positions at the Air Force Institute of Technology (1993-1997) and the University of Alabama (1997-2002).
Dr. Bowersox established and directs the Texas A&M University National Aerothermochemistry Laboratory, which is a unique interdisciplinary research facility. His research interests include theoretical, experimental and computational modeling of high-speed viscous flows with molecular and chemical non-equilibrium, dynamic stall, high-speed propulsion, hypersonic transition, hypersonic turbulence control, laser diagnostics, shock and detonation waves, unsteady gasdynamics and wind tunnel design. His research is supported primarily by the US Air Force, US Army, NASA and private industry.
He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as a member of the American Physical and Chemical Societies. He is a member of the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee, where he chairs the Theoretical and Experimental Subcommittee. He is an associate editor for the AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power. He is also a US National Committee Member for the International Society of Airbreathing Engines.
He received the Col Charles A. Stone Award in 1995 for leadership at the AFIT, as well as five Air Force Scientific Achievement Awards in 1996 and 1997. He was selected the AIAA outstanding faculty member in Aerospace Engineering at UA in 1999 and 2001. Among his many accomplishments, he received the Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award in engineering at TAMU in 2004, was awarded the TAMU Engineering ’43 Webb Faculty Fellow in 2005, was selected as a TEES Faculty Fellow in 2009, awarded the E.D. Brockett Professorship Award in 2010 and most recently he was awarded the Haliburton Foundation Professorship in 2012.
Dr. Bowersox has served as Associate Department Head for Graduate Studies and Research Infrastructure in the department for the past three years. He brings a wealth of administrative knowledge and experience to the role of interim department head. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Bowersox on this appointment.
We offer our thanks to Dr. Dimitris Lagoudas for his service to the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Under his leadership, the reputation of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M has grown to new heights. Dr. Lagoudas’ tireless efforts to improve the quality of education and research within the department are greatly appreciated, and we wish him continued success in his new assignment as Senior Associate Dean for Research; Interim Deputy Director, TEES; and Associate Vice Chancellor for Engineering Research.