Director, Facility Fidelity, Co-Lead
Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Dr. Walker's primary research interests lie in electric propulsion, plasma physics, and hypersonic aerodynamics/plasma interaction. He has extensive design and testing experience with Hall thrusters and ion engines. Dr. Walker has performed seminal work in Hall thruster clustering, vacuum chamber facility effects, plasma-material interactions, and electron emission from carbon nanotubes. His current research activities involve both theoretical and experimental work in advanced spacecraft propulsion systems, diagnostics (including THz time-domain spectroscopy and Thomson scattering), plasma physics, helicon plasma sources, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, and pulsed inductive thrusters. Dr. Walker also teaches the undergraduate Jet & Rocket Propulsion course, as well as the graduate level Rocket Propulsion, Electric Propulsion, and Gasdynamics courses.

Education

  • B.S.E., Aerospace Engineering, 1999, University of Michigan
  • M.S., Aerospace Engineering, 2000, University of Michigan
  • Ph.D.Aerospace Engineering, 2004, University of Michigan

Honors:

  • Provost’s Emerging Leaders Program, 2017
  • Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award, 2017
  • National Academy of Engineering Symposium on Exploring a New Vision for Center-Based, Multidisciplinary Engineering Research, 2016
  • National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium Organizing Committee, Co-organizer for the session “Engineering the Search for Earth-like Exoplanets,” 2015
  • National Academy of Engineering US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium – Participant, 2014
  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics – Associate Fellow, 2011
  • Lawrence Sperry Award, 2010
  • AFOSR Young Investigator Program Award, 2006
  • NASA Faculty Fellow, 2005
  • Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow, 2005

Lab/Collaborations

  • High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory (HPEPL)
  • Ben T. Zinn Combustion Laboratory
  • Institute for Materials

Disciplines

  • Propulsion & Combustion

AE Multidisciplinary Research Areas:

  • Space Exploration and Earth Monitoring
  • Sustainable Transportation and Energy Systems