Vigor Yang
Vigor Yang is Regents’ Professor and Ralph N. Read Endowed Chair. He was the AE School Chair for a decade (2009-2018). He has published 14 comprehensive volumes and numerous technical papers on aerospace propulsion, combustion, energetics, and artificial intelligence. He was the recipient of the AIAA Air-Breathing Propulsion Award (2005), the Pendray Aerospace Literature Award (2008), the Propellants and Combustion Award (2009), the von Kármán Lectureship in Astronautics Award (2016), and the Reed Aeronautics Award (2025). He was awarded the Worcester Reed Warner Medal (2014) by the ASME and the Lifetime Achievement Award (2014) by the JANNAF Interagency Propulsion Committee.
He also received the Statistics in Physical Engineering Sciences Award (2019) from the American Statistical Association. He was bestowed an honorary doctorate by Cheng Kung University in Taiwan in 2019.
Dr. Yang was the editor-in-chief of the AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power (2001-2009) and the JANNAF Journal of Propulsion and Energetics (2009-2012). He is currently a co-general editor of the Aerospace Book Series of the Cambridge University Press (2010-) and the editor-in-chief of the Machine Learning Book Series of the de Gruyter Academic Publishing GmbH (2025-). A member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, an Academician of Academia Sinica, and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Yang is a fellow of the AIAA, ASME, Royal Aeronautical Society, and Combustion Institute.
Lab/Collaborations:
- Ben T. Zinn Combustion Laboratory
- Strategic Energy Institute (SEI)
- School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
- Yang Aero Maker Space
Disciplines:
- Propulsion & Combustion
- Aerodynamics & Fluid Mechanics
AE Multidisciplinary Research Areas:
- Large-Scale Computations, Data, and Analytics
- Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
- M.S., Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University
- B.S., Power Mechanical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
Member, U.S. National Academy of Engineering; Academician, Academia Sinica; Outstanding Teaching Award (1989), Premier Research Award (2005), Penn State Engineering Society (1989); Best Paper Awards, AIAA (Propellants and Combustion, 1996; Air-Breathing Propulsion, 2004, 2007); Air-Breathing Propulsion Award, AIAA (2005); Pendray Aerospace Literature Award, AIAA (2008); Propellants and Combustion Award, AIAA (2009); William R. Marshall Award, Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems (2013); Worcester Reed Warner Medal, ASME (2014); Lifetime Achievement Award, JANNAF Interagency Propulsion Committee (2014); von Karman Lectureship in Astronautics Award, AIAA (2016).