Track Keynotes are speakers that will be highlighted within a specific track. The speaker will be presenting for an extended time and occur during a regular break out technical session.
Fluid Mechanics Technical Committee Track (FMTC)
Dr. Ganesh Raman
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research
California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor
Biography: Dr. Ganesh Raman is Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research at the California State University (CSU) Office of the Chancellor. He is the senior academic official responsible for the enterprise-wide vision, advancement and administration of CSU’s research and scholarly mission. He oversees 10 systemwide research consortia and numerous multi-campus institutes and centers.
In his seven years at CSU, Dr. Raman has guided the growth and evolution of its research enterprise that includes 23 campuses by $150M to over $708M in annual sponsored program expenditures. He has fostered a significant expansion of research activities, as reflected in the increase of CSU archival publications by 27% to 38,000 papers during his term and the growth of CSU campuses with Carnegie R2 “High Research Activity” classifications from one in 2017 to seven in 2022. Dr. Raman created the first-ever systemwide CSU Strategic Plan for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities, which connects research directly to student success, faculty excellence, and serving California communities. He also launched a systemwide CSU STEM network focused on reducing the student achievement gap in and enhancing faculty mentoring and collaboration in developing grant proposals.
Dr. Raman serves on the Board of Directors for the California Council on Science and Technology, California Life Sciences, and the Long Beach Accelerator.
Dr. Raman formerly served as Deputy Vice Provost for Research at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he was also a Professor in the Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering Department.
Dr. Raman began his career at NASA Glenn Research Center. He is internationally recognized for his research in aeroacoustics and flow control and has published over 150 articles in leading scientific journals and conference publications. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Royal Aeronautical Society, UK; and is the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Aeroacoustics. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
Fluid Applications & Systems (FASTC)
Dr. Ting Wang - Director of Energy Conversion and Conservation Center (ECCC)
Jack & Reba Matthey Endowed Chair
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Biography: Professor Ting Wang is currently the Director of Energy Conversion and Conservation Center (ECCC) and Matthey Endowed Chair for Energy Research of University of New Orleans (UNO). He is also a Professor of Department of Mechanical Engineering. Prior to UNO, he taught 15 years at Clemson University in South Carolina, USA. He has been involved in energy conservation and power generation research in full spectrum for the past 40 years. He specializes in gas turbine power generation, turbomachinery, coal gasification, poly-generation, integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC), Micro Combined Cooling, Heating, and Power (Micro-CCHP), multiphase flow heat transfer, mist cooling, energy efficiency, and general thermal-flow engineering. He has conducted both fundamental and applied research with funding from U.S. governmental agencies, such as Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Office of Naval Research (ONR), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), USAID, National Science Foundation (NSF) and various industries, including General Electric, Siemens, 3M, Entergy, Dynergy, Power Engineering, Rain CII Carbon, and Louisiana Steam Equipment Company.
Professor Wang received a Ph .D from University of Minnesota at Twin Cities in 1984, an M.S. degree from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1981, and B.S. from Tatung Institute of Technology in Taiwan with a major in mechanical engineering. He has published over 330 research papers and reports. He was the recipient of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) George Westinghouse Silver Medal for his contributions to power engineering in general and the Edward F. Obert Award for research in the area of Integrated Mild-Partial Gasification Cycle (IMPGC). He was the Past Chair of two ASME committees (Coal, Biomass, Hydrogen, and Alternative Fuels Committee and Gas Turbine Heat Transfer Committee). He also serves on the Executive Committee of American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE) and on the board of International Board of Pittsburgh Coal Conferences. He was on the editorial board of three International Journals. He was appointed by former Louisiana Governor “Mike” Foster as a member of the Louisiana Comprehensive Energy Policy Advisory Commission. He is an ASME and ASTFE Fellow.
Multiphase Flow Track (MFTC)
Dr. Xiaofeng Liu
Associate Professor, AE Graduate Advisor
Department of Aerospace Engineering
San Diego State University
Presentation Title: Measuring Pressure Distribution to Achieve Better Understanding on Multiphase Flow Physics
Biography: Dr. Xiaofeng Liu, an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), is currently an associate professor and the graduate advisor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at San Diego State University (SDSU). Before joining SDSU, he was first a postdoctoral fellow, and subsequently an assistant research scientist at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He received his Bachelor and Master degrees in aerodynamics from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Ph.D. degree in aerospace engineering from University of Notre Dame. Prior to coming to the U.S. for his Ph.D. studies, he was a lecturer at the Department of Engineering Mechanics at Tsinghua University. Before joining the Tsinghua faculty, he was a project manager at the Division of International Cooperation at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
Dr. Liu has extensive experience in flow diagnostics including hotwire, seven-hole probe, laser Doppler velocimetry and Particle Image Velocimetry. His research expertise includes high-lift aerodynamics, turbulent shear layer flows, wake flows, vortex dynamics, cavitation, bubble dynamics, jet atomization, flow-structure interactions, acoustics, and non-intrusive pressure and scalar measurement techniques.
Dr. Liu has been a U.S. citizen since 2010. He has been appointed as an Office of Naval Research (ONR) Summer Faculty Fellow /Senior Fellow in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2024, respectively. He is the recipient of the Best Faculty Award in Aerospace Engineering from SDSU in 2017, the Most Influential Faculty Award from SDSU College of Engineering in 2019, and the Outstanding Contribution to Aerospace Education Award from AIAA San Diego Section in 2022. Dr. Liu and his students received the American Physical Society Gallery of Fluid Motion Award in 2023 for their high-speed video entry titled "Visualization and Feature Tracking of the Atomization of Impinging Jets".
Fluid Measurement & Instrumentation Technical Committee (FMITC)
Todd Lowe
Professor, Kevin T. Crofton Dept. of Aerospace & Ocean Engineering
Director of Pratt & Whitney Center of Excellence
Virginia Tech
Biography: Todd Lowe is a professor in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering and the director of the Pratt & Whitney Center of Excellence at Virginia Tech. He leads a research team focused on experimental aerodynamics and aeroacoustics, often addressing applications on propulsion inlets and exhausts. His fundamental contributions have provided insights for understanding turbulence transport and noise in turbulent shear flows, such as the role of large-scale turbulence in supersonic jet noise. His instrumentation research has resulted in several notable impacts, including 250 kHz planar vector velocimetry and methods for quantitative flow imaging without particles. He is co-inventor of seven US utility patents, with two additional patents pending, and has co-authored more than 175 publications in the areas of advanced diagnostics for fluid dynamics, turbulent shear flow and jet noise physics, propulsion and power, and signal processing. Notably among his several leadership posts, he is the Co-Director of the Advanced Propulsion and Power Laboratory at Virginia Tech and Past Chair of the AIAA Aerodynamic Measurement Technology Technical Committee. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and an associate fellow of AIAA.