Mitchell L.R. Walker II

Daniel Guggenheim School Chair and William R.T. Oakes Professor
Telephone
Office Building
Montgomery Knight
Office Room Number
311
Biography

Dr. Walker's primary research interests lie in electric propulsion, plasma physics, and hypersonic aerodynamics/plasma interaction. He has extensive design and testing experience with Hall thrusters and ion engines. Dr. Walker has performed seminal work in Hall thruster clustering, vacuum chamber facility effects, plasma-material interactions, and electron emission from carbon nanotubes. His current research activities involve both theoretical and experimental work in advanced spacecraft propulsion systems, diagnostics (including THz time-domain spectroscopy and Thomson scattering), plasma physics, helicon plasma sources, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, and pulsed inductive thrusters. Dr. Walker also teaches the undergraduate Jet & Rocket Propulsion course, as well as the graduate level Rocket Propulsion, Electric Propulsion, and Gasdynamics courses.

Research

Lab/Collaborations:

  • High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory (HPEPL)

  • Ben T. Zinn Combustion Laboratory

  • Institute for Materials

Disciplines:

  • Propulsion & Combustion

AE Multidisciplinary Research Areas:

  • Space Exploration and Earth Monitoring

  • Sustainable Transportation and Energy Systems

Mentor Expertise Areas

Aerodynamics or Fluid Mechanics

Propulsion Systems for Aircraft or Spacecraft

Space Systems

Mentor Focus Areas

Advice related to graduate school

Advice related to maximizing success at GT

General career mentoring

Education

B.S.E., Aerospace Engineering, 1999, University of Michigan; M.S., Aerospace Engineering, 2000, University of Michigan; Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, 2004, University of Michigan;

Distinctions & Awards
  • Provost’s Emerging Leaders Program, 2017
  • Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award, 2017
  • National Academy of Engineering Symposium on Exploring a New Vision for Center-Based, Multidisciplinary Engineering Research, 2016
  • National Academy of Engineering Frontiers of Engineering Symposium Organizing Committee, Co-organizer for the session “Engineering the Search for Earth-like Exoplanets,” 2015
  • National Academy of Engineering US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium – Participant, 2014
  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics – Associate Fellow, 2011
  • Lawrence Sperry Award, 2010
  • AFOSR Young Investigator Program Award, 2006
  • NASA Faculty Fellow, 2005
  • Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow, 2005