Purdue provost Provost Patrick J. Wolfe has approved the recommendations of named professorship committees in AAE and College of Engineering, acknowledging Dan DeLaurentis as the Bruce Reese Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics. This professorship is part of the generous support provided by an AAE alumnus to provide additional recognitions for the school's faculty.

"I feel deeply honored about this, especially because I continually aspire to match Dr. Reese's substantial contributions and leadership in national security," DeLaurentis says.

DeLaurentis has been a faculty member in AAE since 2004 and directs the Center for Integrated Systems in Aerospace, AAE's system-of-systems lab. His research interests lie in design and performance estimation of flight vehicles, with a focus on stability and control. He's especially interested advanced aerial mobility (AAM) designs. He uses mathematical modeling and decision-support frameworks for the design of system-of systems, including for AAM technologies, autonomous aerial swarms and other complex unmanned systems.

He also serves as chief scientist at the Department of Defense's Systems Engineering Research Center and vice president of centers and institutes in Purdue Discovery Park District.

"As with the recognitions announced for our colleagues at the associate professor level in June, this newly available professorship uses the name of one of our deceased emeritus faculty members to recognize their contributions in the history of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics," writes Bill Crossley, the Uhrig and Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Bruce Reese was a Purdue student (MSME 1948, PhD 1953) and faculty member at Purdue starting in 1946. He was appointed professor of mechanical engineering in 1957, director of the Jet Propulsion Center in 1966, and head of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics from 1973 to 1979.

According to One Small Step: The History of Aerospace Engineering at Purdue University, Reese was technical director for the Nike Zeus and Nike X projects in the early 1960s while on leave fromp Purdue, with responsibility for technical supervision of the US Army’s R&D activities in ballistic missile defense. He served on the scientific advisory board for all three military services and was twice awarded the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Medal. He was named a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus in 1982, and was included in the inaugural cohort of Purdue Outstanding Aerospace Engineers in 1999.