March 2002 to present – Chief, Aeropropulsion Division
Appointed as a member of the U.S. Senior Executive Service, responsible for providing enabling capabilities to the aerospace community by leading research and developing technology in the area of propulsion for aero as well as space applications. Also responsible for leading the partnership, with internal and external organizations, to conduct research and development to plan new initiatives and insure technical capabilities in strategic areas consistent with the Center’s roles and mission, maintain GRC technology leadership, and interface with customers and stakeholders to transfer technology.
Aug. 1998 to March 2002 – Chief, On-Board Propulsion Branch
Responsible for development and transfer of advanced on-board spacecraft propulsion technologies for future NASA missions and other government and commercial spacecraft applications by advancing the state of the art in chemical, electric, and other propulsion systems. Examples of technology advancement include ion propulsion system for Deep Space-1 spacecraft under the NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) program, Hall-Effect Thruster system for Future-X and Radiation Technology Demonstration(RTD) missions, Pulsed Plasma Thruster (PPT) for the Earth Observer (EO-1) mission, Rhenium/Iridium chamber technology for bipropellant rocket systems, microrocket technology for nanosatellite applications, and Magneto Plasma Dynamic (MPD) thruster technology for high power missions.
April 1991 to August 1998 – Chief, Computational Fluid Dynamics Branch and Senior Leader/Consultant
Focus of research was on developing a predictive capability to accurately simulate the complex flow features of the advanced aerospace propulsion systems that would lead to better understanding of flow physics resulting in efficient designs of these systems. Areas of contribution include hypersonic inlets and nozzles, performance optimization of turbomachinery components, aerodynamic design of supersonic inlet for the High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) engine, investigative studies of Rocket based combustion Cycle (RBCC) for Single-Stage-to-Orbit propulsion system, and jet mixing studies for HSCT noise reduction strategies.
Education
- Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering (1983), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
- Master of Engineering in Aerospace Engineering (1974), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
- Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineer¬ing (1971), Sri Venkateswara University, A. P., India
