AAE Professor appointed as Raisbeck Engineering Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Technology Integration

The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday (Oct. 15) ratified the appointments of three named and distinguished professors and approved a master's degree in aviation and aerospace management.

The board also ratified the appointment of a dean and distinguished professor for the College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne and the restructuring of a school and division at IPFW.

In addition, the board passed a resolution of appreciation for trustee William S. Oesterle.

Trustees approved the appointments of Melissa J. Dark as the W.C. Furnas Professor in the College of Technology, Stephen D. Heister as the Raisbeck Engineering Distinguished Professor for Engineering and Technology Integration, and Richard Mattes as Distinguished Professor of Foods and Nutrition.

Stephen Heister, who has been on the Purdue faculty since 1990, is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics. His research interests are in aerospace propulsion systems, including both airbreathing and rocket propulsion applications.

In 2003 he helped form the Rolls-Royce University Technology Center in High Mach Propulsion and has been its director since that date. He also has been an active researcher at Purdue's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratory in both gas turbine and rocket propulsion areas. He has also been a University Faculty Scholar.

He received his bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering and his master's degree in 1981 and 1983, respectively, at the University of Michigan. He received his doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1988.