Performing Member Contact:

Ashwani K. Gupta, Professor

University of Maryland
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College Park, MD 20742
301-405-5276/FAX 301-314-9477
akgupta@eng.umd.edu

• Gas turbine combustion, swirl flows, fuels, air pollution, combustion instabilities, optical diagnostics, flowfield modeling and diagnostics, combustion with high temperature air, combustion in microgravity, alternative fuels and fuel reforming.

• Advanced zero emission combustion systems, advanced energy conversion systems with high performance and lower pollution, clean energy conversion from low grade fuels, fuel-air mixing, thermal destruction of wastes, combution with high temperature air, and high speed flows and propulsion.

• Several experimental combustors for gas and liquid fuels, gas turbine combustor for high temperature and high pressure mixing and flow simulation, swirl combustors, plasma reactor, flow reactors, engines, high temperature air combustion facility, lasers, gas analyzers, GC/MS, PIV, LDV, Phase Doppler particle size analyzer, PLIF, sound spectrum analyzer, Thermal image analyzer, high speed camera, Chemiluminescence apparatus, and Heat flux apparatus.

University of Maryland, College Park

Ashwani Gupta was born in India and obtained his B.Sc. degree in 1966. He worked as a research engineer at International Combustion Ltd., Derby from 1967 to 1971. During this period he spent one year at the University of Southampton and obtained his M.Sc. in Combustion and High Temperature Gas Dynamics from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1970. His Ph.D. degree in Combustion was obtained in 1973 from the University of Sheffield, Department of Chemical Engineering and Fuel Technology. He was awarded D.Sc. degree from the University of Sheffield in 1986. This degree is conferred upon a graduate who has a proven record of published high quality original research work and who has distinguished himself by substantial contributions to learning in Engineering and/or Applied Science, which have established his position as an authority in his field of study. He received the AIAA Energy Systems Award in 1990 and Propellants and Combustion Award in 1999. He also received the ASME George Westinghouse Gold Medal in 1998 and James Harry Potter Gold Medal Award in 2003. He was awarded the University of Maryland President Kirwan Research Award in 2003. He was awarded Best Paper awards by ASME in 1991 and 1997 and 2003 and by AIAA in 1987, 1989, 1992 and 1994 for his research contributions. Prior to his present position as Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of Combustion Laboratory, his academic experience includes six years as Member of Research Staff in the Energy Laboratory and Department of Chemical Engineering, MIT, three years as Senior Research Associate and independent Research Worker in Chemical Engineering and Fuel Technology, Sheffield University. He spent four months in Japan as consultant to Nippon Furnace and many other companies. At the University of Maryland he embarked the Combustion Laboratory to which he is currently the director and also Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His main research interests and contributions have been in the fields of Combustion, Swirl Flows, Diagnostics, Spray, Combustion, Hazardous Waste, Pollution, and Alternative Fuels. He has co-authored three books entitled Swirl Flows, and Flowfield Modeling and Diagnostics, and High Temperature Air Combustion: from energy conservation to pollution reduction. He has published over 350 archival papers in various journals, and refereed symposia and conference proceedings. He is the founding co-editor of the Energy Engineering and Environment Series published by CRC Publishers. He is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Propulsion and Power. Dr. Gupta was the chairman of AIAA Terrestrial Energy Systems technical committee (1991-2000) and was previously the Chairman of the Propellants and Combustion national technical committee for the period 1988-1990. He is presently the Deputy Director of Energy of AIAA. He is cited in Who's Who in America, Engineering, Technology, American Education, and Aviation in the USA, and The Men of Achievement in the U.K. He has served on many technical committees and chaired many International conferences and symposia by invitation. He is often on the proposal reviewing committee for NSF, NASA, EPA, DOE, and ASEE and has frequently reviewed technical papers for many professional societies and journals. He has been a consultant to many organizations in the USA, Europe and Japan. Presently he is an International Consultant to the Japanese government (NEDO, METI). He is a Chartered Engineer and Fuel Technologist in the U.K., Fellow of AIAA, ASME and The Institute of Energy, and member of SAE and The Combustion Institute.