As part of the 75th anniversary celebration, the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics will host a heads panel with William A. Crossley, the current J. William Uhrig and Anastasia Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and former heads Tom I-P. Shih, John P. Sullivan, Thomas N. Farris and Alten F. "Skip" Grandt, Jr. Mark Lundstrom, the acting dean of the College of Engineering, will introduce the panelists. 

The panelists represent the last five heads of the department, dating back to 1985. In the panel discussion, the group will reflect on the history of the School, the place it has in the aerospace community and its success and offer thoughts about the future of the School and the future of the broader field of aerospace. The panel also will field questions from the audience.

Registration for the event is required but is open to everyone.  

Bios

William A. Crossley

William A. (Bill) Crossley is professor and J. William Uhrig and Anastasia Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue; he has been a faculty member since 1995. He is also the Director for the Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility and Sustainability (PEGASAS), the FAA's Center of Excellence for General Aviation. Crossley earned his BSE (Aero) in 1990 from the University of Michigan, and he worked at McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems while earning his MS (1992) and PhD (1995) in Aerospace Engineering via the Arizona State University Industrial Fellows Program. At Purdue, Crossley has received School, College and University-level teaching awards. He received the College's Leadership Award in 2016, participated in the 2016-17 Big Ten Academic Alliance Academic Leadership Program, and is part of the 2018-19 Purdue Insights Forum. Crossley is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and served the AIAA Aircraft Design Technical Committee chair. He is an Executive Committee member for the Council of Engineering Systems Universities and currently serves as Past-chair. Crossley led the formation of the System of Systems Signature Area at Purdue and is currently a member of the Purdue Systems Collaboratory leadership team.

Thomas N. Farris

Farris has served as dean of the Rutgers University School of Engineering since 2009, overseeing the school’s seven academic departments comprising ten undergraduate and graduate degree programs, five nationally recognized research centers, and administrative, budget and student services offices. As dean, Farris has led a five-year strategic planning initiative that defined the school’s role in fostering the integration of education, government, and industry to maximize school strengths and expand into new areas of growth, including an emphasis on teaching excellence, research innovation, diversity and community, and facilities expansion. In addition to increases in student enrollment, qualifications, and diversity; a strong first-year academic curriculum; and faculty research impact, the school completed the construction a collaborative learning and research environment that includes labs, smart classrooms, lecture halls, and touchdown spaces.

Prior to Rutgers, Farris joined the Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics as assistant professor, eventually advancing to school head. While there, he administered undergraduate and graduate education and research programs.

His research interests in aerospace structures and materials included a focus on tribology, manufacturing processes, and fatigue and fracture. He has served as principal or co-principal investigator for more than $22 million in externally sponsored research of which he was directly responsible for more than $5 million. Research in fretting fatigue led to computer software now used throughout the aircraft engine industry to assess the effect of attachment fatigue on high cycle fatigue of gas turbine engines. Among his many awards, Farris has been acknowledged for research with a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Burt L. Newkirk Award. Farris is past chair of the executive committee of the Applied Mechanics Division of the ASME, past member of the board of directors for Engineers without Borders-USA, consultant to the Army Science Board, and represented Rutgers-New Brunswick on Governor Phil Murphy’s Economic Development Transition Team. He is Fellow of ASME (2001) and AIAA (2009) and member of the board of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education.

Farris received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1982 from Rice University and a doctoral degree in applied mechanics at Northwestern University in 1986.

Alten F. "Skip" Grandt

Grandt is Purdue University Raisbeck Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He joined Purdue in 1979, served as the Head of the School from 1985 to 1992, and retired in 2016. His technical interests include damage tolerant structural analysis and design, fatigue and fracture, and nondestructive inspection. His teaching and research experience include direction of many graduate theses and publication of numerous technical papers in the damage tolerance area. He is also the author of textbooks on the fundamentals of structural integrity and the history of the Purdue School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Tom I-P. Shih

Shih is professor of aeronautics and astronautics (head, 2009-19) and professor, by courtesy, of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. He received his PhD from The University of Michigan in 1981. Prior to joining Purdue in 2009, he was a mechanical engineer at NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center and served on the faculties of the University of Florida, Carnegie Mellon University, Michigan State University and Iowa State University (chair of the Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, 2003-09). He is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and received the 2015 AIAA Energy Systems Award and the 2020 AIAA Thermophysics Award.

Shih’s research interests are in computational fluid dynamics, gas turbine aerodynamics and heat transfer, and thermal management of aerospace systems. He has authored/co-authored one book, 10 book chapters, and 217 paper in journals and conference proceedings; edited/co-edited one book, two encyclopedia sections, and one journal section; served as PI/co-PI on projects from government agencies and industry with total grants and contracts awarded at $25 million; advised/co-advised 57 MS and 33 PhD students.

Shih currently serves on the Aeronautics Committee of the NASA Advisory Council. Also, he is on the advisory board at The University of Michigan’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Illinois Institute of Technology’s Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering. For AIAA, Shih currently chairs AIAA’s Committee on Higher Education and serves on the Committee on Standards for CFD, Terrestrial Energy Technical Committee, and AIAA Ethics Committee. For ASME, Shih serves on the Gas Turbine Heat Transfer (K-14) Technical Committee. Shih also serves as an associate editor and on the editorial board of several journals.

John P. Sullivan 

Sullivan is a professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He received a BS from the University of Rochester and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduation, he co-founded a small high technology company in California. In 1975, in joined the faculty of Purdue University. His administrative experiences include Director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Co-Director of the Product Lifecycle Management Center of Excellence, Head of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1993-1998), Associate Head (1991-1993) and Director of the Aerospace Sciences Laboratory (1983-1995). He directs graduate student research in the general area of experimental aerodynamics/fluid mechanics with a particular emphasis on optical instrumentation. Recent work has centered on the use of molecular sensors for engineering measurements resulting in a book on “Pressure and Temperature Sensitive Paint." He spent a year sabbatical at the Office of Naval Research in 1989-90, a year at the Boeing Company in 2002 and two years at NASA Headquarters.