Dr. K. Gabriel Xu
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is very pleased to welcome Dr. Gabriel Xu, appointed as Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, effective August 2012. As an undergraduate student, Dr. Xu was a Space Scholar at the Air Force Research Laboratory and an intern with the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Company. As a graduate student, he was a Research Assistant in the High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory at Georgia Tech. Dr. Xu's research interest is experimental plasma science as applied to problems in propulsion, energy, materials processing, and combustion. He is joining UAH after recently completing a Ph.D. dissertation focused on improving the performance of Hall thrusters, a plasma-based propulsion system for spacecraft.
Dr. Xu received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. George Nelson
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is very pleased to welcome Dr. George Nelson, appointed as Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, effective August 2012. During his undergraduate studies, he was a Georgia HOPE Scholar and an engineering co-op for Pratt & Whitney. As a graduate student, he held both research and teaching assistantships. His general research interests include transport phenomena, energy storage and conversion devices, sustainable energy systems, and multi-scale modeling and analysis. He specializes in the investigation of mass and charge transport in fuel cells and batteries. Dr. Nelson is joining UAHuntsville after three years as an Assistant research Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Nelson received B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Daniel Armentrout
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is very pleased to welcome Dr. Daniel Armentrout, appointed as Lecturer of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, effective August 2012. Dr. Armentrout was the Interim Chair and lecturer in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering department at the University of Denver (DU). He has taught a diverse mix of graduate and undergraduate courses in mechanical engineering, general engineering, physics and general science. In his 14 years at DU, his research concentrated primarily on the testing and analysis of composite materials exposed to extreme environments. In 2011 he received the Faculty Pioneer Award for Scholarship and Leadership at DU and in 2007 the Best Citizen Award in the School of Engineering and Computer Science. His employment experience also includes the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (1990-1996) where he worked on materials analysis and waste encapsulation techniques of radioactive and hazardous waste. He has published over 35 articles in international journals and 20 conference proceedings. Daniel Armentrout graduated with a bachelor degree in physics from Drake University in 1985. He also has MS and PhD degrees in physics from the University of Denver. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Colorado.
Nicholas Lynn
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is very pleased to welcome Dr. Nicholas Lynn, appointed as Lecturer of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, effective August 2012. Dr. Lynn earned his doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tennessee Space Institute in 2007. During his studies, Nicholas participated in an exchange program studying at the Institut für Luft- und Raumfahrt at RWTH-Aachen Germany. After completing his degree, he spent a year in a postdoctoral position at Florida State University. Prior to joining UAH, Nicholas spent three years as a consulting engineer for SimuTech Group.
