Professor of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan
Iain D. Boyd is the James E. Knott Professor of Engineering in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan. He received a Ph. D. in aeronautics and astronautics (1988) from the University of Southampton in England. He worked for four years at NASA Ames Research Center in the areas of aerothermodynamics and space propulsion. Dr. Boyd was a faculty member in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University for six years. He joined the University of Michigan in 1999. His research interests involve the development and application of physical models and computational methods for analysis of nonequilibrium gas and plasma dynamics processes in aerospace systems. He has authored over 200 journal articles, more than 300 conference papers, and recently published a book entitled “Nonequilibrium Gas Dynamics and Molecular Simulation.” Dr. Boyd is a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA), and has received the 1998 AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, the 1997 AIAA Electric Propulsion Best Paper Award, and the 2011 AIAA Thermophysics Best Paper Award. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Royal Aeronautical Society. Dr. Boyd serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer and Physical Review Fluids. Dr. Boyd was awarded the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Award for Exceptional Public Service for his leadership role in the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (AFSAB).
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Jul 13, 2019 06:03 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology
Flying faster than the speed of sound still sounds futuristic for regular people, more than 15 years after the last commercial supersonic flights ended. The planes that made those journeys, the 14 aircraft collectively...
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May 20, 2019 22:35 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science
U.S. Navy pilots and sailors wont be considered crazy for reporting unidentified flying objects, under new rules meant to encourage them to keep track of what they see. Yet just a few years ago, the Pentagon reportedly...
US, Russia, China race to develop hypersonic weapons
May 02, 2019 16:51 pm UTC| Insights & Views
Russia and China have recently touted their progress in developing hypersonic vehicles, which fly much faster than the speed of sound, which is 767 mph. Hypersonic missiles are rocket-boosted to high altitude and may be...
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