Matalon named AIAA Fellow

Moshe Matalon, the College of Engineering Caterpillar Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, has been elected Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Before coming to Illinois, Matalon was a professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University for 25 years. He began his career as an assistant professor in the Aeronautical Laboratories of the Polytechnic Institute of New York in Farmingdale, NY. He earned his PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University after receiving his master’s and undergraduate degrees from Tel Aviv University.

His research focuses on combustion and chemically reacting flows. He is internationally renowned for his numerous contributions to the development of combustion theory in the last three decades, including the structure and dynamics of premixed and diffusion flames, combustion instabilities, flame stabilization and dynamics of edge flames, wrinkled and turbulent flames, burning of condensed fuels, and spray combustion. Matalon is particularly known for his seminal contributions to the hydrodynamic theory of multi-dimensional and time-dependent premixed flames and the derivation of a well-known expression for the flame speed and its relation to flame stretch. This work enabled fundamental understanding of flame dynamics, onset of instabilities and flame extinction in various configurations, and is currently used by his research group to study the propagation of the ubiquitous turbulent flames.

Matalon’s other honors and awards include: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Pendray Aerospace Literature Award (2010); College of Engineering Caterpillar Professorship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008); Lady Davis Professorship, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (2006); and Best Paper Award on Propellants and Combustion (2004). He was the chair of the AIAA Propellants and Combustion Technical Committee from 1999 to 2002, and has been science advisor for the United States-Israel binational Science Foundation since 2004. Matalon is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (1995) and Fellow of the Institute of Physics (1999). He serves as editor in chief of Combustion Theory and Modelling, as associate editor of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and he serves on the editorial board of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science.

The rank of Fellow in the AIAA is for “persons of distinction who have made notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.”

The official announcement is available on the AIAA website.
__________________________

Contact: Moshe Matalon, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, 217/244-8746.

Writer: William Bowman, associate director of communications, Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, 217/244-0901.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, editor, Engineering Communications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 217/244-7716.