In his research, Matalon models combustion phenomena that are related to a broad range of important engineering technologies and topics of primary societal and environmental concern. Because combustion involves momentum, mass and energy transport in multi-component and often multi-phase systems in which chemical reactions with significant energy liberation take place, understanding such phenomena involves solving a complex set of highly nonlinear differential equations that are further complicated by inevitable temporal variations, multi-scale phenomena and nontrivial boundaries.
Matalon has achieved a fundamental understanding of such problems by systematically constructing models that contain the main features of the physical phenomenon being considered and obtaining solutions to these simplified models that enable comparison of the theoretical predictions with experimental observations.
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will present a number of prestigious awards during the 48th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exposition, January 4, 2010, at the Orlando World Center Marriott, in Orlando, Fla. The recipients will be honored in a public ceremony hosted by AIAA President David Thompson on January 5.