PEOPLE
G. Bramesfeld, Ph.D.
G. Comer, Ph.D.
S. Martin, Ph.D.
M. McQuilling, Ph.D.
S. Minteer, Ph.D.
J. Potvin, Ph.D. (Point of Contact)
K. Ravindra, Ph.D.
W. Thacker, Ph.D.
R. Willits, Ph.D.
Visitors:
N. Anderson, Ph.D.; Professor, University of Liverpool, United
Kingdom
Point of Contact: Jean Potvin, Ph.D.
Jean Potvin received his doctoral degree in 1985 from the
University of Colorado - Boulder. He has been on the faculty
at Parks College since 1991, and was promoted to the rank
of Professor in 2004. Dr. Potvin’s faculty appointment
is in the Physics Department.
In the last ten years his research has focused on the study
of fluid dynamics as applied to parachute inflation. During
that time he has published over 25 research papers in aeronautical
journals and peer-reviewed conferences, and since 1998 he
has been the Principal Investigator of over 12 grants and
contracts funded by the US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, and
by several US-based parachute manufacturers. He is currently
serving a fifth term on the Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems
technical committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics (AIAA).
Dr. Potvin is also the current director of the H.G. Heinrich
Parachute Systems Short Course, the World’s only professional
course on parachute design. He is also the co-founder, with
Mr. Gary Peek from Industrologic Inc., of the Parks
College Parachute Research Group. Dr. Potvin holds several
parachute certifications, including a FAA Senior Parachute
Rigger rating, a US Parachute Association (USPA) D-License
(“Expert” license) and a USPA Instructor rating.
His main research interest has been the study of the aerodynamics
and physics of parachute inflation, with emphasis on the
determination of the drag force (or air resistance) acting
on a parachute. A parallel study has also
been the investigation of the turbulent wake of non-streamlined
bodies in a state of rapid acceleration or deceleration. Dr.
Potvin
has participated in several DoD-funded wind tunnel studies
and flight tests of sub-scale and full-scale parachute systems.
Dr. Potvin's research has spanned both engineering and physics,
involving studies based on mathematical analysis, computer
simulations and
laboratory experiments. He has even co-designed a parachute
system for the stabilization of wind sondes currently being
used by the US. Government.
Goetz Bramesfeld, Ph.D.
Gotz Bramesfeld is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.He received his Ph.D.
in Aerospace Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. His main research interest is applied aerodynamics,
which includes analytical,
computational, and experimental work. His current research is directed towards
the improvement of the design tools for small uninhabited and micro airborne vehicles.
He is particularly interested in developing experimental methods of laminar flow airfoils
at low and very-low (<50,000) Reynolds numbers. A further interest of his is the design
and analysis of flight vehicles, especially pertaining to their performance and flight mechanics.
Of particular interest is the flight-performance enhancement by making use of the energy of
the turbulent atmosphere.
Greg Comer, Ph.D.
Greg Comer received his B.S. in physics and mathematics from
East Tennessee State University in 1984 and his Ph.D. from
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1990. He
held a two-year postdoc with the Racah Institute of Physics
of The Hebrew University from 1990-92 and a one-year position
with the Observatory of Paris-Meudon from 1992-93. He has
been on the faculty of Saint Louis University since 1993,
and an Adjunct Faculty with the Department of Physics of Washington
University since 1997. His main area of research is Newtonian
and general relativistic multi-fluid dynamics with applications
to astrophysical compact objects (eg. neutron stars) and their
gravitational wave emission. The main scientific goal is to
understand how superfluidity and superconductivity
determine the rotational structure of neutron stars, their
spectrum of oscillations, and the extent to which the
oscillations result in detectable---with, say, LIGO---gravitational
waves. He has published 23 refereed journal
articles and 4 non-refereed book chapters, conference proceedings,
and on-line arXiv preprints in this area.
He is also co-author on an upcoming review on relativistic
fluids for the Living Reviews in Relativity.
He has also been the principal investigator on two NSF/Gravitational
Physics Division grants, a visiting scientist
on an EPSERC grant in the United Kingdom and the Chinese University
of Hong Kong Program on Initiatives in Numerical Relativity
& Astrophysics, and one of the initial recipients of a
SLU 2000 Faculty Research Leave Award.
Dr.
R. Scott Martin
R. Scott Martin is currently an assistant professor of chemistry
at Saint Louis University. Dr. Martin received his Ph.D. in
analytical chemistry from the University of Missouri in 1999
under the direction of Professor Stanley Manahan. From 1999-2002
he was a NIH post-doctoral fellow with Professor Susan Lunte
in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University
of Kansas. After spending a year on the faculty at the University
of Iowa, Dr. Martin moved to Saint Louis University in the
fall of 2003.
Dr. Martin has published over 28 research papers, most of
which deal with research involving use of microchip-based
devices for studying biological systems. His research is currently
funded by two grants from the National Institutes of Health.
He also is a member of the Bioengineering and Biotechnology
Peer Review Study Group for the American Heart Association.
Dr. Martin also has adjunct appointments in the Department
of Biomedical Engineering at Saint Louis University and the
Department of pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of
Kansas. He is also a short course instructor for the course,
“Microfluidics,” at the annual LabAutomation meeting.
Dr. Martin’s research involves the use of microchip-based
analytical devices to study various biological systems. Students
in his group are trained in many fields including analytical,
biology and engineering. New advances in microchip-based versions
of flow-based analysis, capillary electrophoresis, electrochemistry
and fluorescence are
being developed to probe and monitor various biological systems.
Current projects include: 1) the development of a microchip-based
blood brain barrier (BBB) mimic to study the effect of nitric
oxide (NO) on the integrity of the BBB (in collaboration with
Dr. Dana Spence, Wayne State University and supported by a
grant from the NIH);
2) development of a microchip-based analysis system/reactor
system to study the effect of NO on the onset of Parkinson's
disease (supported by a grant from the NIH); 3) development
of novel sensitive and selective methods for monitoring endogenous
thiols; and 4) development of chip-based immobilized enzyme
assays.
Dr.
Mark McQuilling
Mark McQuilling is interested in the aerodynamics of
airfoils extract energy from the flow in a
gas turbine engine (low-pressure turbine (LPT)), which power the compressors as well as provide
auxiliary energy to the aircraft. The current industry design trend is
to decrease the number of airfoils in a stage in order to reduce the
weight and cost of the engine. For an equivalent amount of total work
extracted, decreasing the number of airfoils increases the loading on
each blade. The primary obstacle to overcome with these higher-lift
designs is the accurate prediction of transition on the suction
surface. In coordination with the Air Force Research Laboratory at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, my research will explore the LPT
design space with a 2D design code using state-of-the-art transition
modeling to determine the limits of well-behaved, high-lift LPT
airfoils. The performance of new designs will also be experimentally
validated in a low-speed wind tunnel linear turbine cascade. This
experimental validation will also provide additional insight into the
complicated transition process occurring in the boundary layer over the
suction surface of the airfoil. The ultimate goal of this work is to
reduce the size, weight, cost, and fuel consumption of modern gas
turbine engines.
Unmanned aerial vehicles have received a great deal of attention in the
recent past, and the design trend is to keep decreasing the size of the
vehicles. The fluid physics of these smaller aircraft are not yet well
understood, and further research is needed in order to properly design
the most efficient vehicles at such extremely small sizes. Research is
planned in collaboration with Dr. Bramesfeld of the Aerospace and
Mechanical Engineering Department to experimentally investigate the
aerodynamics of low-Reynolds number flows around these small vehicles.
Dr.
Shelley D. Minteer
Shelley Minteer received her doctoral degree in 2000 from
the University of Iowa in Chemistry. She has been on the faculty
in the Department of Chemistry at Saint Louis University since
2000 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in
2005. Since arriving at SLU, Dr. Minteer's research has focussed
on the development of efficient alternative energy sources.
Her group works to improve both
the transport and kinetic properties of alternative energy
sources. During that time, the group has published 26 research
papers and has had funding from the US Army, US Navy, US Air
Force, DARPA, CIA, and the United Soybean Board.
The main focus of the Minteer Group is high power density
and long lifetime biofuel cells. A biofuel cell is a type
of battery that can be recharged with the addition of more
fuel and utilizes enzymes as biocatalysts in order to convert
chemical reactions to electrical energy. The Minteer research
group has developed a powerful technique to immobilize enzymes
at the electrode surface, while maintaining facile mass transport
of the fuel to the enzyme. This technique has helped to stabilize
enzymes for increased periods time (months instead of days)
by protecting fragile enzymes in tiny pore-like structures
resulting in increased power and lifetime of the biofuel cell.
In addition, with this technique a wide variety of fuels can
be utilized including carbohydrates, fatty acids, and alcohols.
K. Ravindra, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering: Pennsylvania State University
M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering: Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore
B.S. in Mechanical Engineering: National Institute of Engineering,
Mysore
Research Interests: Fluid Dynamics & Buffet
Latest Publications:
Hauch, R. M, Jacobs, J. H., Dimas, C., and Ravindra, K. Reduction
of Vertical Tail
Buffet Response Using Active Control, Journal of Aircraft,
Vol. 33, No. 3, May-June 1996.
William Thacker, Ph.D.
William D. Thacker received his Ph.D. in Physics from the
University of Colorado – Boulder in 1984. He has been
on the faculty of Parks College since 1989 and was promoted
to the rank of Professor in 2001. Dr. Thacker currently serves
as chair of the Department of Physics. For the past ten years
Dr. Thacker has been working on the theory and modeling of
fluid turbulence. His research has focused on:
• Turbulence in time-dependent mean flows
• The influence of compressibility on turbulent correlations
involving pressure
• Development of turbulence models that incorporate
transition
• Probability density functions for turbulence
Dr. Thacker’s research in turbulence modeling has been
funded by several grants from NASA Langley Research Center.
Sample Publications:
W. D. Thacker, S. Sarkar, and T. B. Gatski, “An Analysis
of the Rapid Pressure-Strain Rate Correlation in Compressible
Shear Flow”, in the Proceedings of the 4th International
Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena in Williamsburg,
VA, 27-29 June 2005.
C. L. Rumsey, W. D. Thacker, T. B. Gatski, and C. E. Grosch,
“Analysis of Transition-Sensitized Turbulent Transport
Equations”, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Paper 2005-0523, presented at the 43rd AIAA Aerospace
Sciences Meeting, January 10-13 2005, Reno NV.
C. D. Pruett, T. B. Gatski, C. E. Grosch, and W. D. Thacker,
“ The temporally filtered Navier-Stokes equations: Properties
of the residual stress”, Physics of Fluids, Vol. 15,
pp. 2127-2140 (2003).
W. D. Thacker, T. Gatski, and C. Grosch, “Modeling the
dynamics of ensemble-averaged linear disturbances in homogeneous
shear flow”, Flow, Turbulence and Combustion, Vol. 63,
pp. 39-58 (2000).
W. D. Thacker, T. Gatski, and C. Grosch, “Analyzing
mean transport equations of turbulence and linear disturbances
in decaying flows”, Physics of Fluids, Vol. 11, pp.
2626-2631 (1999).
W. D. Thacker, "A path integral for turbulence in incompressible
fluids", Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 38, pp.
300-320 (1997).
Becky Willits, Ph.D.
Dr. Willits is an associate professor at the Department of
Bio-Medical Engineering.
In 1999 she obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering from
Cornell University, and has been a faculty member at Saint
Louis University soon after. Her research encompasses several
areas in tissue engineering and biomaterials. The main research
focus of the laboratory is development and optimization of
novel materials to control cell function. To optimize these
materials, we investigate chemical, mechanical and electrical
factors that
influence cell function. One area of research is the nervous
system, where we are developing scaffolds to act as a support
and to guide regrowing nerves. To this end, we are developing
a computational model that mimics nerve growth in 3D to better
optimize & design these materials. Another area is orthopedics,
where, in collaboration
with Dr. Bledsoe's laboratory, we are fabricating and examining
materials that act as both an adhesive between bone and implant
and a support to encourage bone growth and integration. In
addition, we are developing materials for the cardiovascular
system to control restenosis after angioplasty. More information
about Dr. Willits' tissue engineering laboratory can be found
at this site: http://parks.slu.edu/~willitsr/telab/
.
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