Principal Investigator
Dr. Subith Vasu
| Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department | University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL | 2021-Present |
| Associate Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department | University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL | 2018-2021 |
| Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department | University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL | 2012-2018 |
| Post Doctoral Appointee, Combustion Research Facility | Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA | 2010-2011 |
| Post Doctoral Researcher, Mechanical Engineering | Stanford University, Stanford, CA | 2010-2010 |
| Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering (major) | Stanford University, Stanford, CA | 2004-2010 |
| M.Tech, Aerospace Engineering | Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India | 2004 |
| B.Tech, Aerospace Engineering | Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Chennai, India | 2004 |
Post-Doctoral Researchers

Dr. Ramees Rahman
Assistant Professor
Hometown: Kerela, India

Dr. Justin Urso
Assistant Professor
Hometown: Sparr, FL

Dr. Farhan Arafin
Lab Manager
Hometown: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dr. Ritesh Ghorpade

Dr. Michael Pierro
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Graduate Students
Nicolas Berube
Lab Manager Hometown: Pembroke Pines, FL

Louis Vest
Lab Manager Hometown: Glendora, CA
Daniel Dyson
Hometown: Lehigh Acres, FL
Nishan Khanal
Hometown: Columbia, MO

Marc Etienne

Jonathan McGaunn
Hometown: Naples, FL

Christopher Dennis

Louis Yovino
Hometown: Parkland, FL

Andrew DeRusha

Marzuqa Ahmed

Christopher Loving

Garrett Mastantuono

Priyankar Garai

Zuhayr Mohammed

David Zamora

Michelle Franzen
Hometown: Porto Alegre, Brazil

Shahzad Bobi
Hometown: Punjab, Pakistan

Marley Albright
Hometown: St. Augustine, FL

Hamil Patel
Hometown: Coral Springs, FL

Koby Rouviere
Hometown: Miami, FL

Anthony Aguilera
Hometown: Hialeah, FL

Nikolas Hulliger

Timothy Loye

Ahmed Safdari
Hometown: Mumbai, India

Alejandro Puerta-Alvardo

Diego Ruiz Pena

Bryan Suarez
Hometown: Orlando, FL

Lucas Pitts

Matthew Fraze

Kesly Lubin

Valerie Rodriguez

Tyler Kreuscher

Oli Valenzuela

Zachary Morris
Hometown: Boynton Beach, FL

Fawzan Ahmed

Sam Klopp
Hometown: Warrenton, VA

Guillermo Barrios
Hometown: Caracas, Venezuela

Bright Katey

Mikayla Lindsay

Braden Venger

Jae Kim

Aaron Guenther

Gabriel Duany Izaguirre
Hometown: Miami, FL

Rodrigo Yuraszeck
Hometown: Viña del Mar, Chile

Tomas Ruiz
Undergraduate Students

Amanda Maia
Hometown: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Allen Benarroch
Anya Ambarish
Hometown: Sterling, VA

Jonathan Sanchez

Colton Ashworth

Esteban Diaz-Rodriguez

Henry Mack

Nicholas Walsh

Avril Elmer-Santiago

Brianna Rick

Matt Ziegler

Ashley Thornton

Savannah Fowler

Savannah Taylor

Thuy-Linh Le

Tariqullah Wardak

Jordan Flick

Katherine Coyle
Vasu Lab Alumni
Post-Docs (15 Total)
Ph.D. Dissertations (31 total)
M.S. Thesis (41 Total)
REU Summer Interns and Vistors
Post-Docs (15 Total)
| Name | Current Position |
|---|---|
| Dr. Carlos Velez | Research Engineer, GE Global Research Center, NY |
| Dr. Batikan Köroğlu | Research Staff, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, CA |
| Dr. Frank Barnes | R&D Engineer, Aerojet-Rocketdyne, Jupiter, FL |
| Dr. Sergey V. Panteleev | Chief Engineer, Center of Metrology of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia |
| Dr. Suhyeon Park | R&D Engineer, Samsung, Seoul, S. Korea |
| Dr. Chun-Hung Wang | Faculty, Northland Pioneer College, AZ |
| Dr. Raghu Veera Manikantachari Kancherla | Senior Combustion R&D Engineer, Power Systems Manufacturing (PSM), FL |
| Dr. Erik Ninnemann | Test Engineer, SpaceX, TX |
| Dr. Zachary Loparo | Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD), MD |
| Dr. Kyle Thurmond | Staff Scientist at Los Alamos National Lab, NM |
| Dr. Anthony Terracciano | Spacecraft Propulsion Engineer, The Boeing Company, FL |
| Dr. Ramees Rahman | Research Assistant Professor, UCF |
| Dr. Justin Urso | Research Assistant Professor, UCF |
| Dr. Gihun Kim | Research Engineer, NSWC IHD, MD |
| Dr. Cory Kinney | Aero Design Engineer – Combustion, Siemens Energy, FL |
Ph.D. Dissertations (31 total)
| Name | Current Position |
|---|---|
| Prof. Ghazal Barari | Assistant Professor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, AZ |
| Dr. Carlos Velez | Research Engineer, General Electric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY Founder and CEO, Deep Flow LLC |
| Dr. Batikan Köroğlu | Staff Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Livermore, CA |
| Dr. Anthony Terracciano | Spacecraft Propulsion Engineer, The Boeing Company, FL |
| Prof. Bader Almansour | Assistant Professor, Automotive and Marine Department, The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Kuwait |
| Dr. Owen Pryor | Research Engineer, Southwest Research Inst., TX |
| Dr. Sneha Neupane | ABB Group, NC |
| Dr. Raghu Veera Manikantachari Kancherla | Senior Combustion R&D Engineer, Power Systems Manufacturing (PSM), FL |
| Dr. Samuel Barak | Boeing Space, FL |
| Dr. Zachary Loparo | Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD), MD |
| Dr. Gihun Kim | Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD), MD |
| Dr. Kyle Thurmond | Staff Scientist at Los Alamos National Lab, NM |
| Dr. Erik Ninnemann | Test Engineer II, SpaceX, TX |
| Dr. Andrew Laich | Rocket Propulsion Engineer II, Blue Origin, Seattle, Washington |
| Dr. Ramees Rahman | Research Assistant Professor, Vasu Lab, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Justin Urso | Research Assistant Professor, Vasu Lab, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Cory Kinney | Aero Design Engineer – Combustion, Siemens Energy, FL |
| Dr. Christopher Arose | Post-Doc, Sandia National Lab, NM |
| Dr. Farhan Arafin | Post-Doc, Vasu Lab, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Jacklyn Higgs | Army Research Lab, MD |
| Dr. Jessica Baker | Space Force Contractor/ULA, FL |
| Dr. Ritesh Ghorpade | Post-Doc, Vasu Lab, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Juan Cruz Pellegrini | Propulsion/Combustion Scientist, Specter Aerospace, MA |
| Dr. Michael Pierro | Post-Doc, Vasu Lab, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Sydney Briggs | Sr. Systems Integration and Test Engineer, Lockheed Martin, FL |
| Dr. Robert Greene | |
| Dr. Daniel Dyson | |
| Dr. Jose Bobren-Diaz | |
| Dr. Nishan Khanal | |
| Dr. Jonathan McGaunn | |
| Dr. Nicolas Berube |
M.S. Thesis (41 Total)
| Name | Subsequent Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Luke Thompson | Lockheed Martin, Orlando, FL | |
| Kyle Thurmond | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Owen Pryor | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Anthony Terracciano | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Joseph Lopez | NASA KSC, FL | |
| Michael Villar | Engineer, Department of Defense, VA | |
| Leigh Nash | Engineer, Mitsubishi Hitashi Power Systems Americas, Lake Mary, FL | |
| Samuel Barak | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Akshita Parupalli | Engineer, Lockheed Martin SkunkWorks, Palmdale, CA | |
| Erik Ninnemann | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Andrew Laich | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Cory Kinney | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Sami Alawadhi | Research Engineer, Kuwait Insitute of Scientific Research (KISR), Kuwait | |
| Bader Almansour | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Robert Greene | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Daniel Dyson | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Jessica Baker | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Jacklyn Higgs | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Sydney Briggs | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Nicolas Berube | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Michael Pierro | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Nishan Khanal | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Jonathan McGaunn | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Christopher Loving | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Marc Etienne | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Juan Cruz Pellegrini | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| David Zamora | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Alex-Abraham Pothen | Aero Design Engineer – Combustion, Siemens Energy, FL | |
| Zuhayr Pasha Mohammed | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Garrett Mastantuono | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Louis Yovino | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Timothy Loye | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Christopher Dennis | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Ahmed Safdari | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Koby Rouviere | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Hamil Patel | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Andrew DeRusha | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Marley Albright | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Michelle Franzen | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Marzuqa Ahmed | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Nikolas Hulliger |
REU Summer Interns and Vistors
| Name | Affiliation | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Ladislav Vesely | Czech Technical University, Prague* | 2017 – 2018 |
| Camille Phillips | NSF- REU, Georgia Southern University | Summer 2019 |
| Marzuqa Ahmed | NSF – REU, New York University** | Summer 2021 |
| Julia Kondrat’yev | NSF – REU, University of Western Florida | Summer 2022 |
| Kesly Lubin | NSF – REU, University of Central Florida** | Summer 2023 |
| Gabriela Rivas | NSF – REU, University of Central Florida | Summer 2023 |
| Kevin Salazar Flores | NSF – REU, University of Central Florida | Summer 2023 |
| Madeline Raynor | NSF – REU, University of Central Florida | Summer 2023 |
| Prof. Rehab M. I. Elsamra | Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science,Alexandria University, Egypt | 2021 – 2023 |
| Julia Meredith | NSF – REU, University of Central Florida | Summer 2024 |
| Madalyn Pullins | NSF – REU, Utah State University | Summer 2025 |
| Savannah Taylor | NSF – REU, University of Central Florida | Summer 2025 |
*later joined UCF MAE department with CATER **later joined Ph.D Program with PI
