College of Engineering Chooses AE Professor as Willett Faculty Scholar

Aerospace Engineering at Illinois Associate Prof. Joanna M. Austin has been chosen for a Willett Faculty Scholar Award in the College of Engineering.

The recognition is targeted for faculty members who, at a relatively early stage in their careers, are excelling in their contributions to the University. The award represents a type of “junior professorship” to encourage continued achievement in outstanding young faculty.

Austin researches fundamental problems in fluid mechanics, particularly in reacting, compressible flows that occur in a broad range of applications: hypervelocity planetary entry, shock-driven bubble collapse, detonation and supersonic combustion, and high speed flow phenomena in geological applications such as explosive volcanic eruptions. Her research is predominantly experimental, combined with analytical modeling.

Upon her arrival at Illinois in 2003, she established the Compressible Fluid Mechanics (CFM) laboratory, and with the support of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), built the Hypervelocity Expansion Tube (HET) facility. This facility uses a novel method of gas acceleration to produce a minimally contaminated free-stream representative of planetary entry conditions for ground-based testing.

Austin has conducted a number of fundamental studies using the HET and other facilities in the CFM lab and has been published widely in such journals as Physics of Fluids, Progress in Aerospace Sciences, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Journal of Geophysical Research, and AIAA Journal. The depth and innovation of her research has led to funding by AFOSR, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and industries such as Gulfstream and Rolls-Royce.

Austin earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and in mechanical and space engineering from the University of Queensland in 1996. She earned a master’s and PhD in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 and 2003, respectively. Beginning her career in AE as an assistant professor, Austin was promoted to associate professor in 2011.

Last fall, she was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Her honors also have included:

• 2011 Engineering at Illinois Xerox Award for Faculty Research
• 2010 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation
• 2009 Best Paper Award from the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee
• 2007 Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
• 2003 Richard Bruce Chapman Award for distinguished research in hydrodynamics in the Engineering and Applied Sciences Division at Caltech.