Affiliated Faculty

Aleksandar Jemcov has over twenty years of experience in computational fluid dynamics and turbomachinery-related flows. His research interests include the development of numerical algorithms for fluid mechanics, solid-fluid interactions, efficient solver methodologies applicable to both compressible and incompressible flows, thermoacoustics, turbulence modeling, and linear algebra. His prior experience includes work in the Combustion Department at Pratt & Whitney Canada, Development Department at Fluent Inc., and the Development Department and Fluids Business Unit at ANSYS, Inc. He currently serves as Associate Director for Computational Sciences at Notre Dame Power & Propulsion and is concurrently appointed as Research Assistant Professor in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame.

Jemcov completed his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Belgrade in 2004.

Sergey B. Leonov serves as an Affiliated Faculty Member at Notre Dame Power & Propulsion supporting research on high-speed combustion for supersonic/hypersonic propulsion systems, including scramjet and ramjet combustors. Leonov’s research interests and contributions include hypersonics, supersonic combustion, weakly ionized plasmas, and active flow control.

Leonov is a Research Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He worked in research and higher education institutions in Moscow, Russia, including the Joint Institute for High Temperature of the Russian Academy of Sciences where he was a Head of Department, and concurrently at the Moscow Open University where he served as a Professor. From 2013 to 2014, Leonov was a visiting professor at The Ohio State University. He has over 400 publications, including over 70 peer-reviewed journal papers. He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA, IEEE Senior Member, AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Technical Committee Member, Coordinator of Plasma Aerodynamics Discussion Group, EUCASS Flow Physics Technical Committee Member, and a FLUCOME Honorary Member. He has extensive experience in managing international and national research projects, including projects funded by AFOSR, AFRL, DARPA, Boeing Co., MDBA-France, DERA-UK, and FP-6/EU.

Leonov received his Ph.D. (1990) from the Baltic State University and a Doctor of Science degree (2006) in Phys and Math from the Russian Academy of Science.

Professor Scott Morris joined the University of Notre Dame in 2002. He is currently a Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, and also serves as the co-founder of Notre Dame Power & Propulsion, and is also the Director of the Institute for Flow Physics and Control. His current research interests include multi-disciplinary technology development for propulsion and power systems, with an emphasis on aerodynamics, aeromechanics, and acoustics.

Timothy Ovaert serves as an Affiliated Faculty Member at Notre Dame Power & Propulsion supporting research in high-speed bearings, high-pressure seals, and mechanical systems. Ovaert has over thirty years of experience in research on tribology, contact mechanics, and mechanical characterization.

Ovaert is a Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He is a recipient of the National Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and has served as chair of both the ASME Research Committee on Tribology and the ASME/STLE International Joint Tribology Conference. His awards for research and teaching include the Burt L. Newkirk Award from ASME and the Ralph R. Teetor Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers. He has held visiting faculty appointments in the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate at the Army Research Lab and the High-Temperature Materials Lab at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Ovaert received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University (1989).

Thomas G. Pratt serves as an Affiliated Faculty Member at Notre Dame Power & Propulsion supporting research in advanced sensor systems including the development of Radio Frequency (RF) based inlet debris and engine health monitoring systems for gas turbine engines. Pratt’s research interests focus on radio frequency systems, particularly “physical layer” issues such as signal processing, system architectures, signal propagation, and multi-port techniques.

Pratt is a Research Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He heads the RF Communications and Sensing Laboratory, which consists of research engineers, administrative staff, and doctoral students. His laboratory conducts research on projects for applications such as radar, communications, and sensing systems, and supports technology transition efforts for medical monitoring, cyber security, and industrial equipment monitoring applications. Under Pratt’s leadership, the research group has acquired approximately $12M in research and equipment funding since 2008. Lab facilities and equipment include two field research vehicles, coherent MIMO transceiver systems, and a wide assortment of software-defined radio platforms.

Pratt completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1999; he worked at the Georgia Tech Research Institute for 23 years as a research engineer before coming to Notre Dame. Pratt holds 13 patents related to his research.