A professor who literally wrote a book on rocket propulsion has been honored with a distinguished technical award in the field from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Stephen Heister, Raisbeck Engineering Distinguished Professor for Engineering and Technology Integration, was selected as the 2021 AIAA Wyld Propulsion Award winner. The award is presented for outstanding achievement in the development or application of rocket propulsion systems.

Heister will be recognized during a virtual AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum Awards Ceremony on August 11 for “continuous leadership in advancing rocket propulsion engineering through state-of-the-art computational and experimental research and decades of mentorship of students.”

“It is humbling to be recognized by peers in the rocket propulsion community with this honor,” said Heister, who co-authored “Rocket Propulsion” with AAE Professors William Anderson and Timothée Pourpoint and alumnus Joe Cassady.

Though he came to Purdue with a focus in solid rocket propulsion, Heister’s interests branched into hybrid and liquid propellant rockets through his 31-year career at Purdue. He and his students have published experimental and theoretical modeling results in all aspects of chemical rocket propulsion and he is co-holder of a patent for a high-strength solid rocket propellant formulation.

Since 2014, a major focus of his research has been related to rotating detonation engines (RDEs). The RDE is a device that exploits continuous detonative combustion in a thin annular channel and has the potential to advance aerospace propulsion performance significantly.

“His leadership in building interest for funding rotating detonation engine (RDE) work demonstrates that his scientific vision continues to have profoundly important implications for the aerospace propulsion field in the United States,” one of Heister’s nominators wrote. “I have no doubt that he will continue to make important contributions to aerospace propulsion for many years in the future.”

Heister was named an AIAA Fellow in 2013.

The Propulsion Award and the James H. Wyld Memorial Award, honoring the developer of the regeneratively cooled rocket engine, were combined in 1964 to become the James H. Wyld Propulsion Award. It was renamed the Wyld Propulsion Award in 1975. Two other AAE professors have received the AIAA honor, Maurice Zucrow (1966) and John Robert Osborn (1995).

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