The veteran AE faculty will use the resources of the professorship to improve on an already-rich professional relationship

Professor Lakshmi SankarGeorgia Tech Regents Professor Lakshmi Sankar has been selected to serve as the next Sikorsky Professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

A member of the AE faculty for almost four decades, Sankar, a noted researcher in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), has a long and fruitful association with Sikorsky.

“One of my very first sponsored projects outside of Georgia Tech’s Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence (VLRCOE) was with Sikorsky,” said Sankar, who also serves as the associate chair for undergraduate programs at the AE School.

 “It was funded by Dennis Huff and Dr. Raj Shenoy, on the topic of dynamic stall.”

Many of Sankar’s doctoral and master’s graduates have gone on to work with Sikorsky and sister organizations within UTC.  Five of his 41 doctoral graduates serve in high-ranking roles that allow them to map out future collaborations and research directions. Sankar said he plans to use the resources provided to him through the Sikorsky professorship to maximize the value of those close relationships by sponsoring more frequent campus seminars and technical exchanges from high-ranking Sikorsky researchers.

"I'd like to be able to bring some of our faculty out to visit with our colleagues at Sikorsky," he said. "I think we can learn a lot from each other."

He also plans to use some funds to support undergraduate and graduate Sikorsky fellowships for promising students.

“I think, with small stipends, the students would feel encouraged to continue their work,” he said. “It will also allow me to bring in speakers from Sikorsky to the AE School and to bring promising young faculty to visit Sikorsky for technical exchanges.”

AE Chair Vigor Yang lauded his longtime colleague.

“There isn’t a student in our School who has not benefited from Dr. Sanker’s wise counsel,” he said. “We could not be happier with this announcement.”

Sankar’s research has focused on the modeling and simulation of unsteady viscous flow around aircraft, helicopters, horizontal axis wind turbines, and turbo-machinery components. He is the author or co-author of more than 300 technical publications in the fields of spatially and temporally high order algorithms, 3-D unsteady transonic flow over aircraft configurations, helicopter aeromechanics, compressor stall and surge, wind energy, and aerodynamic design.

Some of the funds provided by the Sikorsky professorship will allow Sankar to pursue research topics that are not yet mature enough to attract industry sponsors.

"This will give me great freedom," he said.