Dr. Rodney Bowersox has been appointed deputy director for the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and senior associate dean for research for the Texas A&M University College of Engineering. His new role begins Aug. 8, 2023.
Bowersox is the holder of the Ford Motor Co. Design Professorship I in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M and a Regents Professor. He is the founder and director of the Texas A&M National Aerothermochemistry and Hypersonics Laboratory and is the TEES executive director of the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics — a five-year, $20 million-per-year U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) initiative for modernizing hypersonic flight capabilities.
“Dr. Bowersox is undoubtedly the ideal person to serve as the next chief research officer for Texas A&M Engineering,” said Dr. Joe Elabd, vice chancellor for research for The Texas A&M University System, acting vice chancellor and dean of the Texas A&M College of Engineering and acting director of TEES. “Throughout my time collaborating with Dr. Bowersox in engineering, I witnessed firsthand his remarkable dedication to scholarship and commitment to service. I am excited to see the future of Texas A&M Engineering research under his leadership.”
Bowersox is a 2017-23 DoD Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellow, an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Fellow and an American Society of Mechanical Engineering Fellow. He is the associate editor for the AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power and the 2023 recipient of the AIAA Dryden Lectureship Award.
His current research focuses on theoretical and experimental hypersonic viscous flows (turbulent and transitional), nonequilibrium gas dynamics, turbulence modeling, laser diagnostics, high-speed aerodynamics, sonic boom and scramjet flows. He recently led the successful BOLT II flight experiment as the principal investigator.
Bowersox served as the aerospace engineering department head from 2012-20 and the College of Engineering's associate dean for research from 2020-23. He received his doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.