Energy for Propulsion

Dr. Akshai K. Runchal is the founder and Director of CFD Virtual Reality Institute and ACRI group of companies. His expertise is in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). He has consulted widely on flow, heat and mass transfer, combustion, environmental impact, hazardous and nuclear waste, ground water and decision analysis to over 200 clients in 20 countries. He is the principal author of PORFLOW, TIDAL, ANSWER and RADM simulation models that are used worldwide. He received his PhD from Imperial College London, UK and Bachelor's in Engineering from PEC. He has taught in the USA, India and the UK. He has authored 7 books and over 200 technical publications. He has received many honors and awards, and given many invited contributions at conferences.

Dr. Ashwani K. Gupta is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland (UMD), USA. He obtained his PhD and also higher doctorate (DSc) from the University of Sheffield, UK. He was awarded DSc from Southampton University, UK, Honorary doctorates from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA, King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand and University of Derby, UK. He received the President Kirwan Research Award and College of Engineering Research Award at UMD. He has received many honors and awards from AIAA and ASME, and has authored over 700 papers, 3 books, and edited 12 books in the areas of Combustion, Swirl flows, High temperature air combustion (HiTAC), Distributed combustion, Wastes to energy, Acid gas treatment, Fuel reforming, and Air pollution. He is Honorary Fellow of ASME and Fellow of AIAA, SAE, AAAS and RAeS (UK).

Dr. Abhijit Kushari is Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), Kanpur, India. Dr. Kushari received his PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, in 2000 and joined the IIT Kanpur as an Assistant Professor in 2001. He became a Professor in 2014. His research interests are Aerospace Propulsion, Gas Turbine engines, Turbo-machinery, Liquid Atomization Flow Control and Combustion Dynamics. He has authored more than 130 technical papers. He has supervised 6 PhD and 50 M.Tech theses in Aerospace Propulsion fields.

Dr. Ashoke De is Associate Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), Kanpur, India. He is the recipient of IEI-Young Engineer's Award-2014, DST Young Scientist award-2015, and P.K. Kelkar Research Fellowship from IIT Kanpur. He is a member of ASME, SIAM, FMFP, ISHMT and Combustion Institute. He received his MS from IIT Kanpur and PhD from Louisiana State University, Louisiana, USA. He has authored over 80 peer-reviewed papers. His research interests include combustion modeling, hybrid RANS/LES model development, supersonic flows, and Fluid-Structure interactions (FSI) with focus on computational mechanics in combustion and turbulent flows.

Dr. Suresh K. Aggarwal received his Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He was a member of the research staff at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA and a Senior Research Engineer at CMU. He then joined the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA and was promoted to Professor in 1995. He served as Director of Graduate Studies, and was also a Visiting Scientist at ANL, Visiting Professor at Ecole Centrale-Paris, France and Guest Professor at Jiangsu University, China. His research interests include Combustion, Multiphase Reacting Flows, Emissions, Clean Energy, and Fire Suppression. He has authored over 340 publications and graduated 17 PhD and 46 MS students. He is Fellow of ASME, AAAS and Associate Fellow of AIAA.