Prof. Paul D. Ronney is a
Professor in the Department of Aerospace and
Mechanical Engineering at the University of
Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. Prof. Ronney received a Bachelor of
Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, a
Master of Science degree in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology, and a
Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He held
postdoctoral appointments at the NASA-Glenn
Research Center (formerly called NASA-Lewis Research Center) and the
Laboratory for Computational Physics at the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory and
a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering at Princeton University before assuming his current position at
USC. Prof. Ronney was the Payload
Specialist Astronaut (Alternate) for Space Shuttle mission
MSL-1 (STS-83, April 4 - 8, 1997) and the reflight of this mission (STS-94,
July 1 - 16, 1997).
Professor Ronney has extensive
research experience in micro-scale
combustion, premixed flame
ignition by pulsed corona discharges, propagating
fronts in motile bacteria, turbulent
combustion, edge flames,
flame
propagation in confined geometries (Hele-Shaw cells), internal combustion
engines, premixed-gas
combustion at microgravity, flame spread
over solid fuel beds, and radiatively-driven flows
and heat transfer. His research is conducted in the Combustion Physics Laboratory at USC. One of his
experiments, a study of premixed-gas flames at low gravity, called Structure
Of Flame Balls At Low Lewis-number (SOFBALL) flew on the STS-83 and STS-94
Space Shuttle missions in 1997 and the STS-107 mission in 2003.
Prof. Ronney has published over
60 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals, made over 150 technical
presentations (including over 20 invited presentations at international
conferences), holds one U.S. patent with 3 others pending, and has received
over $9 million in funding for his research projects. He is an Associate Editor or Editorial Board Member of Combustion Theory and Modelling, Combustion and
Flame, Microgravity
Science and Technology,
and Progress
in Energy and Combustion Science. In recognition of his achievements, he
is a fellow of the Institute of Physics, a
recipient of the National Science Foundation Presidential
Young Investigator Award, the Princeton Engineer's Council Excellence in
Teaching Award and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (U.K.) Starley
Premium Award for a paper on a new control concept for internal combustion
engines that promises to provide higher thermal efficiency and lower pollutant
emissions.