Above: Prof. Mitchell L.R. Walker II (right)  receiving the Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award from Jason Reynolds, director of Environmental Affairs - Southern Company, during the Yellow Jackets' matchup against Jacksonville State on Sept. 9.

Aerospace engineering professor Mitchell L.R. Walker II has been chosen as the College of Engineering's recipient for the 2017 Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award. He officially received that honor on September 9, during the Yellow Jackets' match-up against Jacksonville State.

Dr. Mitchell L. R. Walker II

The Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award recognizes one outstanding professor from each of the six Colleges at Georgia Tech and is awarded during six home games during the football season.  Georgia Power representatives are on hand to present that game's "Professor of Excellence" with a $1,000 contribution to that goes into the College's general fund.

The director of  AE's High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory, Walker focuses his research on both experimental and theoretical studies of advanced plasma propulsion concepts for spacecraft and fundamental plasma physics. He is a noted expert in the area of Hall effect thrusters, gridded ion engines, magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters, diagnostics for plasma interrogation and thruster characterization, vacuum facility effects, helicon plasma sources, plasma-material interactions, and electron emission from carbon nanotubes. He has authored more than 100 journal articles and conference papers in the fields of electric propulsion and plasma physics.