Dr. Eric J. Ruggiero received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 from the Center for Intelligent Material Systems and Structures as a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow. Upon graduation, Dr. Ruggiero started his industrial research career at GE Global Research in Niskayuna, New York. From 2011 through 2014, he served as Lab Manager for the Turbine Heat Transfer Technologies Laboratory, where he led global research teams on the innovation, design, test, and validation of advanced cooling schemes for gas turbines. In total at GE Global Research, he led over $25MM in R&D efforts in the field of gas turbines for GE. In 2014, Dr. Ruggiero was promoted to Engineering Leader for the Sustaining Commercial Thermal Systems Design team at GE Aviation in West Chester, Ohio. In this role, he had responsibility for the hot gas path thermal design for GE’s commercial aviation fleet. Most recently, Dr. Ruggiero was promoted to lead the Aero & Thermal Technologies organization within Advanced Military Engineering at GE Aviation. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts, issued over 30 patents, and has received numerous awards from AIAA and ASME, including the 2013 AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award and an invitation to the 2013 and 2017 NAE EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Forums. Most recently, Dr. Ruggiero was honored with the 2018 ASME IGTI Best Paper Award in Turbomachinery. He is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA and a Lifetime Fellow of the ASME. As a triple Hokie, Dr. Ruggiero was honored in 2001 as Virginia Tech’s Man of the Year, was a 2-time Paul E. Torgersen Award winner, and was the 2004 Outstanding Graduate Student Award winner. You can follow him on Twitter @EricRuggieroGE
People Category: AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum 2021
Ruben Del Rosario
Dr. Rubén Del Rosario serves as senior director, Aerospace Systems for Crown Consulting Inc. In this role, he directs Crown services in aerospace systems development and engineering with an emphasis on forging research and development partnerships across industry and government agencies. Del Rosario joined Crown after a 29-year career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) John. H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, where he last served as director of aeronautics, providing executive leadership for aeronautics R&D programs and projects in support of the NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) and overseeing annual budgets of more than $150 million.
Rob Button
Rob Button has been at NASA for 34 years and is currently serving dual roles as Deputy Chief of the Power Division at the NASA Glenn Research Center, and Deputy Technical Fellow for Electrical Power for the NASA Engineering Safety Center (NESC). His early career involved development of the International Space Station (ISS) power generation and distribution system, development of satellite power systems with industry, and research into modular and intelligent power system technologies. From 2007-2009 Mr. Button served as power system lead on the Altair lunar lander project, and for the past 12 years has managed multiple engineering organizations at NASA Glenn developing aerospace power system technologies. During that time he has also led teams to resolve power and avionics failures that were preventing delivery of major spaceflight hardware, and was a leader of battery engineering research that significantly enhanced the safety of several lithium-ion batteries for NASA crewed vehicles. His major awards include a NASA Engineering Safety Center Leadership Award, a NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal.
Matteo Ugolotti
Matteo Ugolotti is currently working as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wyoming. He holds a Bachelor and a Master of science in Mechanical Engineering and he also obtained a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati in Aerospace Engineering. His research focus is on advanced numerical technologies for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and aerodynamic design optimization. His interests also include Turbomachinery flows, Aerodynamics, and Machine Learning. Matteo joined the Networking & Professional Development branch of the AIAA Young Professionals Group in 2020 and he is also helping the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee at Aviation and Scitech forums.
Bryan ‘Brown’ Kowalczyk
Bryan ‘Brown’ Kowalczyk is a Senior Research Associate for the UAV MASTER Labs at the University of Cincinnati. He is also an Adjunct Professor for the UC Fire Science and Emergency Management program at UC, teaching courses on UAV and Next Generation Technology. His focus areas are on Flight Test Engineering & Risk Analysis, Resource Allocation, Infrastructure Inspection, Multiple Vehicle Cooperation, and Advanced Air Mobility.
John Fuller
Mr. John Fuller is the Director of Advanced Concepts at Virgin Orbit in Long Beach, CA. John has been with the Virgin team since 2016, and is responsible for the conceptual, financial, and competitive evaluation of developmental programs. Prior to joining Virgin, he worked at Orbital ATK as a systems and GN&C engineer on several vehicle and spacecraft developments including the Orion Launch Abort System, Antares, Stratolaunch, OmegA, Cygnus, and Al-Yah 3 programs. Before Orbital he completed research in-residence at NASA Langley Research Center, simulating the flight dynamics and trajectories of human and robotic exploration systems including Orion, Curiosity, Odyssey, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. John is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina and holds degrees in Aerospace Engineering from NC State.
David McGrath
Dave is a Senior Northrop Grumman Fellow with 37 years of solid propulsion development and production efforts on a wide range of mission types. He is an AIAA Fellow and currently a Deputy Director of the Propulsion and Energy Group. He also has approximately 50 papers in the AIAA and JANNAF conference proceedings.
Keith Numbers
Keith E. Numbers, a Senior Level Executive, is Technical Advisor for Propulsion, Engineering Directorate, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Wright–Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The directorate provides leadership and support at senior government and industry levels in aerodynamic and structural design, propulsion safety, durability and engine certification.
Dr. Numbers has over 35 years of U.S. government experience in leading and executing propulsion system technology and propulsion system development planning across a broad range of speed regimes and applications. Formally trained in propulsion and aerodynamics, he has applied advanced computational methods and participated in experimental investigations for performance and operability of integrated air–breathing propulsion concepts, including turbine engines, scramjets and combined cycles. Dr. Numbers has served as lead engineer for high–speed combined cycle technology programs and lead weapon system integrator for adaptive engine technology programs. Dr. Numbers has led multi–directorate teams in planning and executing technology maturation for strike and air superiority applications and has supported corresponding propulsion development planning efforts including performance, cost and schedule projections.
Olivier Savin
- 23 years of experience with hydrogen fuel cells in aerospace, including 5 years at Honeywell (Los Angeles, CA) and 18 years at Dassault (business jet manufacturer, Paris, France)
- Conducted various collaborative development and demonstration projects for fuel cell applications in aviation
- Acting as Chairman of joint SAE/EUROCAE standardization group on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells for aviation since 2016
Joaquin H. Castro
Joaquin H. Castro has 42+ years of propulsion engineering, management and leadership experience. After the Aerojet acquisition of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) in June of 2013, he joined the Space Advanced Programs Organization of the newly formed Aerojet Rocketdyne Company.
In 2012 Joaquin assumed leadership of International Advanced Propulsion Programs activities at PWR. From 2006 to 2012 he led the strategy and business development activities for the PWR product lines for DOD applications. In this role he led a national team of Field and Program Managers responsible for the support and growth of PWR’s Military Business.
Between 1998 and 2006, Mr. Castro led the high-speed air-breathing propulsion activities at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne with responsibility for all Hypersonic and Combined Cycle Programs. In this role, Mr. Castro’s was responsible for P&L, design development and deployment of hypersonic propulsion products including ramjets, scramjets, combined cycle integration and high-speed elements of combined cycle propulsion systems.
During his Pratt & Whitney career, Mr. Castro has participated and led the planning, design, development, certification, vehicle integration, field support and flight test of gas turbine, scramjet and rocket engines including TF-30, F100, SSME, RD-180, various RL10 models and RL60 engines. During his P&W tenure, Mr. Castro’s responsibilities have included the Management of P&W’s Advanced Upper Stage Rocket Projects, Engineering Manager for the RD-180 development and certification program, Engineering manager for the RL10A-5 Engine Program (four RL10A-5 engines powered the McDonnell Douglas single stage to orbit demonstrator DC-X vehicle), Project Engineer for the development and certification of the RL10A-4 nozzle extension system and Pratt & Whitney’s Venezuela’s In Country Manager for the Peace Delta Program. Mr. Castro holds two patents, has received numerous professional awards and has authored numerous propulsion publications over his career.
Mr. Castro is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Director of the AIAA Propulsion and Energy Group. Mr. Castro was inducted in the International Space Hall of Fame in 2013 as a member of the DC-X Team.
Mr. Castro is a commercial, instrument, land and sea rated pilot and a licensed aircraft mechanic. When not generating thrust with rocket and scramjet engines, Mr. Castro spends some of his time flying and restoring general aviation aircraft.
Joaquin has been married to his wife Lourdes for 42+ years. They have two beautiful daughters Chelsy and Leilani and three granddaughters Eva, Belen and Mackensie.
Education:
BSE, Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida, 1978
Undergraduate and Graduate Business Studies, Florida Atlantic University, 1980-82 MBA, University of Florida, 2006.