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NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

Minimum GPA:  3.5/4.0

Director:  Prof. Mitchell Walker

 
Carl Book - Graduate Research Assistant
Howell Hsieh - Graduate Research Assistant
Alex Kieckhafer - Post-Doctoral Student
Scott King - Graduate Research Assistant
 Rafael Martinez - Graduate Research Assistant
Gabriela Possa - Fulbright Scholar
Lake Singh - Graduate Teaching Assistant
Logan Williams - Graduate Research Assistant
Kunning Xu - Graduate Research Assistant - DoD Fellow

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Carl Book [m] - Graduate Research Assistant
Carl received his BS in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in December 2008 with highest honors. He is currently investigating the interplay between anode temperature, propellant residence time, and Hall thruster performance through the development of an actively cooled anode for the P5 thruster.

Howell Hsieh [m] - Graduate Research Assistant
Howell received his BS in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in December 2008 with highest honors.  Howell has been researching with HPEPL since 2007, and is currently designing a concentric Hall Thruster as part of his Master’s project.  His research interests include Hall Thrusters, plasma physics, and state-of-the-art propulsion systems.

  
 
Alex Kieckhafer [m] - Post-Doctoral Student
Dr. Kieckhafer graduated in 2007 from Michigan Tech, and spent 18 months as a National Research Council postdoctoral associate at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  While at NIST, Dr. Kieckhafer was involved in Terahertz diagnostics as a method of plasma density measurement in High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting plasmas.  Terahertz radiation is an enabling technology for measurement of these high density plasmas, which historically are incompatible with traditional plasma measurement techniques.

Dr. Kieckhafer’s thesis research was in the area of segmented-electrode Hall thrusters, with the goal of active thermal control of the thruster anode.  This work was performed in support of bismuth thruster efforts, where precise anode temperature control is necessary to ensure throttleability of the thruster.

    
 
   
Scott King [m] - Graduate Research Assistant
 Scott received his BS in Aerospace Engineering with high honor from Georgia Tech in May 2008. He has worked with Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training and Support during the summers of 2006 and 2007, where his work involved mechanical design and simulation, project management, and procurement. Scott began work in the High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory (HPEPL) in January 2008 where he worked with various experimental plasma diagnostics and magnetic field simulations. Scott joined the HPEPL as a graduate student in May 2008 and is currently researching a low-Earth orbit ion engine and designing the magnetic field of an 8-cm ion thruster. His interests include plasma physics, RF plasmas, electromagnetism, and hypersonic aerodynamics.
    
 
   
 Rafael Martinez [m] - Graduate Research Assistant
Coming Soon!

Gabriela Possa [m] - Graduate Research Assistant
 Gabriela received her BS in Physics in 2006 and in 2008 she received her Physics license degree, both from University of Brasilia (Brazil). As a graduate student in Brazil she worked with a permanent magnet Hall thruster and received a MS in experimental Physics in 2009 from the same university. Also in 2009 she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and started her studies for a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech. Her research interests are plasma physics and Hall thrusters.

 
Logan Williams [m] - Graduate Research Assistant
Logan graduated with his BS in Mechanical Engineering with highest honors from Georgia Tech in August of 2006, joining HPEPL the same month.  His current research involves the testing of carbon nanotube field emission cathodes and dual-use propellants.  Other areas of interest include helicons, magnetic nozzles, and computer simulations both chemical and electromagnetic.
 
 
 
 
 
Lake Singh [m] - Graduate Research Assistant
Lake graduated with a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and a B.S. in Physics from Virginia Tech in Spring 2009.  His current research interests include plasma physics and Hall Effect thrusters.  He will begin work with HPEPL this fall as he begins graduate school. 
    
 

Kunning Xu [m] - Graduate Research Assistant
 Kunning graduated with a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2006.  He is currently pursing a Ph.D in Aerospace working in electric propulsion.  His current work focuses on Hall Effect thruster and improving their performance through ion focusing and cooled anode.  His interests include Hall thruster, MPD, fusion, plasma physics.

    
 
       
 

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