About Me

I am a mechanical engineer by training and experience. For over 20 years, I’ve worked in aerospace and advanced-technology industries, and have served in technical, management and executive leadership positions for a number of aerospace companies, before founding my own company, BSRC LLC, in 2007. I have a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, and I’m an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

My general areas of expertise are in fluid mechanics and heat transfer. I specialize in the conceptualization, design, fabrication, and testing of high energy-release-rate systems, specifically aerospace propulsion systems and combustion devices, providing both analytical and development/fabrication/testing support for project agendas.

I received my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University in 1996, researching droplet size distributions in fuel sprays and their effect on spray combustion processes within gas turbine combustors. I got an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1986, and an Honors B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah in 1984.

However, I feel that some of my more significant contributions have been related to the development of the Air Turbo Rocket, or ATR. The ATR is turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine, which functions much like a turbojet, but uses a rocket-type gas generator to drive the turbomachinery. In 2001, I designed, built, and hot-fire tested the world’s first (as far as I know) bi-propellant gas generator cycle ATR engine.

I believe that propulsion technology can be a key enabler in the development of low cost access to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In so doing, I hope to contribute the mankind’s expansion off the planet Earth, and out into the Cosmos.