Reed will receive an engraved medal and certificate of citation during the recognition luncheon at the 2018 AIAA Aviation Forum and Exposition in June in Atlanta, Georgia. The citation for her award will read “For lifetime achievements in the fundamental understanding, modeling and control of boundary-layer laminar-to-turbulent transition for aerospace vehicles from subsonic to hypersonic.”
Reed has been with the department for 13 years, serving as department head for four years before returning to teaching and research on a full-time basis. Widely regarded as an expert in hypersonics, boundary-layer stability and transition, energy efficient aircraft and small satellite design, she has led research projects totaling millions of dollars. Among those projects, she is presently a member of two of the five NASA University Leadership Initiatives (one led by Texas A&M and one by University of Tennessee, Knoxville). She is a principal investigator on a major Air Force Office of Scientific Research program to model the transition process on a next-generation hypersonic flight-test article. In addition, Reed has a Phase II small business innovation research program through Arnold Engineering Development Center and CFD Research Corporation to disseminate her analysis tools. She directs the Computational Stability and Transition Lab, as well as the AggieSat Lab satellite program, a design-build-fly student satellite program housed within the department.
Reed is a consultant to the Institute for Defense Analysis, a member of the National Academies Air Force Studies Board Intelligence Science and Technology Experts Group, chair of the AIAA Transition Discussion Group, and a member of the NATO AVT ET 136 Technical Team: “Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition Prediction.” She is also co-founder and chief technology officer for Chandah Space Technologies, a startup company specializing in small satellite systems. She is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Texas.
She has received numerous professional awards and honors, including being named a Fellow of the AIAA, the American Physical Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). She received the Kate Gleason Award from ASME, the Atwood Award from the American Society for Engineering Education and AIAA, and the Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award from the State of Texas. She was inducted into the Academy of Engineering Excellence and the Committee of 100 in the college of engineering, and the inaugural class of the Academy of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Excellence, all at Virginia Tech.
In 2013 she was named a Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence (in perpetuity), as well as a Regents Professor (in perpetuity), and in 2014 she was awarded the Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching at the University Level, and was named holder of the Edward “Pete” Aldridge ’60 Professorship.
Reed earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Goucher College, and master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech.