Faculty & Staff

Nikolaos A. Gatsonis received an undergraduate degree in Physics at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece (1983), an M.S. in Atmospheric Science at the University of Michigan (1996), an M.S. (1987) and a Ph.D. (1991) in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department of MIT.  From 1991 to 1993 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Space Department of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.  In 1994 he joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at WPI, promoted to Associate Professor in 2000 and to Professor in 2005.   He was appointed Director of the Aerospace ...

Prior to joining the faculty at WPI in 2001, I was a Senior Staff Engineer in the Advanced Propulsion Technology Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). My research at JPL included application of plasma sources for materials processing and the development of pulsed plasma and small-scale hydrazine thrusters. In the mission support area, I worked as the propulsion engineer for the Deep Space 3 Interferometer and Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) missions. I am an active member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), serving as an Associate Editor for ...

Autonomous vehicles – aircraft, cars, rovers, over- and underwater vehicles that can move in the real world by themselves without human pilotage – have gained immense importance not only due to the broad spectrum of their potential military and civilian applications, but also due to the concurrent development of sensor technology and embedded systems that enable the realization of true autonomy. These vehicles may be assigned tasks that are dull and/or repetitive, such as mobile surveillance or cleaning and maintenance; tasks that are dangerous for humans, such as military transportation via ...

Professor Demetriou is very active with the Controls and Systems research community. He served as an Associate Editor in the IEEE Tr. on Automatic Control (2004-2007), in the ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control (2009-2011), and in SIAM J. Control and Optimization (2009-present). He is also serving in the IEEE-Control Systems Society Conference Editorial Board as an Associate Editor (1997-present). In 2003 he established the IEEE-CSS Technical Committee on Distributed Parameter Systems and served as his first chair (2003-2012). He is currently serving as the Secretary of ...

My research is aimed towards understanding fundamental aspects of reacting flows at thermodynamic conditions of relevance to aircraft, rocket, and automobile propulsion. Reacting flow phenomena occurring in engines are complicated as a result of turbulent flow, interaction with solid boundaries, and extreme thermodynamic conditions. In order to understand and simulate combustion phenomena under such conditions, there is a necessity to develop accurate chemical kinetic and molecular transport models in addition to fluid mechanics models. One aspect of my research involves measurement of ...

Prior to joining the faculty at WPI in August 2015, I worked as a post-doctoral research associate at Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at California Institute of Technology. My research at Caltech focused on the development of a Granular Element Method (GEM) based force visualization technique for the study of 2D granular systems under impact loading. I examined of the role of granular fabric on the wave motion and formation of force chains in granular media. During my doctoral dissertation at the University of Illinois, I developed micro-scale mechanical experimentation techniques to ...

In my teaching I bring fluid and aerodynamics experiments, including wind tunnels, into the classroom each day. Fundamental concepts are demonstrated in these experiments, and collected data is immediately compared to the theory and equations learned during lecture. Students see that they can use what they are learning in class to predict the behavior of aerospace systems. They then go on to design improved systems in MQP projects and during their careers. My research group (including graduate and undergraduate project students) works on emerging renewable energy technologies including ...

 I have served two past terms as WPI’s Secretary of the Faculty (from 2009 to 2012 and from 2015 to 2018) and am currently serving a third term that began in 2021.  My passion for faculty governance at WPI stems from my passion for the faculty itself. My pride in our faculty governance system is rooted in the longstanding structures in place that encourage every faculty member to express their views, listen carefully to one another, and come to a healthy consensus. I have devoted myself to ensuring that the academic business of the faculty is carried out efficiently, and that the voice of ...

Prior to joining the faculty at WPI in August 2019, I was a Senior Scientist in the Hall Thruster Group at Busek Co. Inc., a Natick company focused on advanced in-space propulsion systems for military, government and commercial satellites.  My work at Busek included, for both research and commercial applications; electric thruster and hollow cathode development, propellant management and delivery systems, and plasma diagnostics.  In my research I work to develop the next-generation electric propulsion systems which operate on alternative (to xenon) propellants, to increase mission ...

Zhangxian Yuan received his B.S.(2010) in Aircraft Design and Engineering and M.S. (2012) in Engineering Mechanics from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China, and earned his M.S. (2015) and Ph.D. (2017) in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Then he accepted a Postdoctoral Fellow position at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Tech, where his research focused on developing advanced high-order theories for sandwich composite structures. In August 2020, Dr. Yuan joined the Aerospace Engineering ...

My research lies at the intersections of orbital mechanics and hypersonic flight mechanics with a focus on expanding the space mission design envelop using novel techniques and enabling next-generation exploration architectures. My work spans a variety of mission designs for planetary explorations, such as orbiter co-delivery concepts for entry vehicles, sample returns from the giant planets, and multi-probe for outer planets exploration. As a proud WPI alumni, I received my B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering here and completed my Ph.D. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics at ...