These featured sessions are available to all Turbo Expo virtual conference attendees. Register to attend these highly informative sessions and support your peers as they are awarded for their industry contributions!
Honors & Awards Track
IGTTA Lecture
Date/Time: Monday, June 7, 2:15 pm – 3:45 pm Eastern time
Title of Session: Industrial Gas Turbine Technology Award Lecture
Session Chair: John Gülen, Bechtel
Award Lecture: Two Decades of US DOE Gas Turbine Research and Innovation
Author: Richard Dennis, Department of Energy NETL
Mr. Richard Dennis is currently the Technology Manager for Advanced Turbines and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycle Programs at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). These programs support US university, industry and U.S. national laboratory research, development and demonstration projects. Rich has a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University. From 1983 to 1992 Mr. Dennis worked in the on-site research group of NETL where he conducted research related to pressurized fluidized bed combustion, gasification and gas stream particulate cleanup for advanced coal based power generation. From 1993 to 2000 Mr. Dennis managed contracted research for the DOE Office of Fossil Energy in advanced fossil fuel power generation including coal combustion, gasification, fuel cells, and gas turbines. In 2002 Richard was selected as a Technology Manager. Currently Richard is serving as the Technology Manager for Advanced Turbines and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Power Cycles programs at NETL. Additionally, Richard was the 2018-19 leader of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Gas Turbine Segment (GTS). Richard is an ASME Fellow.
AETA Lecture
Title of Session: Aircraft Engine Technology Award Lecture
Date/Time: Thursday, June 10, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm Eastern time
Session Chair: Wilfried Visser, Delft University of Technology
Title of Paper: Turbine Innovations for Small Core Engines
Author: Guillermo Paniagua, Purdue University
Guillermo Paniagua has pioneered innovative turbine research in transonic turbines and counter-rotating turbines. He demonstrated pulsating trailing edge blowing method to control shock waves and manage the base flow pressure. He invented a new generation of turbines that can operate under high supersonic inlet conditions: supersonic axial, supersonic radial outflow turbines, and bladeless axial turbines. Based on experimental studies of large variations in heat flux on the turbine rotor casing, he co-invented several turbine rotor over-tip concepts that resulted in three patents, enhancing turbine efficiency. After 18 years at the prestigious von Karman Institute, he joined Purdue in 2014 and founded the Purdue Experimental Turbine Aerothermal Lab, developing a tri-sonic turbine facility with modular test sections to enable TRL1 to 6. Professor Paniagua’s research is encapsulated in 100 journal articles and182 proceeding papers at leading conferences.
Prof. Paniagua holds an MSc in Electro-Mechanical Engineering (Spain), a Research Master from the von Karman Institute (Belgium), and a Ph.D. with highest distinction in Engineering from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). Since 2016 he is a Part-time Faculty Research Participant in the ORISE program at the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
Scholar Lecture
Date/Time: Friday, June 11th 8–9am (Eastern Time)
Title of Lecture: Instabilities Everywhere! Hard Problems in Aero-Engines
Author: Zoltan S Spakovszky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Spakovszky is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the director of the Gas Turbine Laboratory. He obtained his Dipl. Ing. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich and his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. Dr. Spakovszky’s principal fields of interest include propulsion and energy conversion, internal flows in fluid machinery, compressor aerodynamics and stability, micro-fluidics and rotordynamics, aero-acoustics, aircraft design for environment, and electrified aviation. He currently directs analytical and experimental research in these areas and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in thermodynamics, propulsion and fluid mechanics, and aero-acoustics. He has authored a large number of technical papers in refereed journals and has been awarded several ASME International Gas Turbine Institute best paper awards, the ASME Melville Medal, the ASME Gas Turbine Award, the ASME John P. Davis Award, a NASA Honor Award, several Aero-Astro Undergraduate Advising / Teaching Awards, and the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching. Dr. Spakovszky is a technical consultant to industry and government agencies, a Fellow of the ASME, the Vice Leader of the ASME Gas Turbine Segment Leadership Team, an Associate Fellow of the AIAA, and served as the chair of the turbomachinery committee and review chair of the ASME International Gas Turbine Institute, and as an associate editor for the ASME Journal of Turbomachinery.