Principal Investigator
Dr. Subith Vasu
Alternative fuels for propulsion and internal combustion engines, supercritical CO2 power cycles, shock wave physics and chemistry, detonations and explosions, energy conversion processes, laser diagnostics and sensors for combustion and emission, laser spectroscopy, space sensors, chemical kinetics experiments and modeling, non-equilibrium aerothermodynamics, laser ignition, high-altitude balloon measurements, and advanced propulsion engines.
| 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. Michael Pierro
Hometown: Tampa, FL
Dr. Ritesh Ghorpade
Dr. Nishan Khanal
Hometown: Columbia, MO
Graduate Students
Louis Vest
Lab Manager Hometown: Glendora, CA
Bryan Suarez
Lab Manager Hometown: Orlando, FLChristopher 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
Hamil Patel
Hometown: Coral Springs, FL
Koby Rouviere
Hometown: Miami, FL
Anthony Aguilera
Hometown: Hialeah, FL
Timothy Loye
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
Ahmed Safdari
Hometown: Mumbai, India
Alejandro Puerta-Alvardo
Diego Ruiz Pena
Lucas Pitts
Matthew Fraze
Valerie Rodriguez
Cooper Mills
Hometown: Orlando, FL
Tyler Kreuscher
Hometown: Lake Mary, FL
Oli Valenzuela
Fawzan Ahmed
Sam Klopp
Hometown: Warrenton, VA
Guillermo Barrios
Hometown: Caracas, Venezuela
Bright Katey
Mikayla Lindsay
Jae Kim
Aaron Guenther
Hometown: Palm Harbor, FL
Gabriel Duany Izaguirre
Hometown: Miami, FL
Rodrigo Yuraszeck
Hometown: Viña del Mar, Chile
Tomas Ruiz
Savannah Fowler
Savannah Taylor
Jeremy Delmas
Hometown: Pensacola, FL
Jonathan Sanchez
Tariqullah Wardak
Trysten Morley
Undergraduate Students
Colton Ashworth
Nicholas Walsh
Avril Elmer-Santiago
Brianna Rick
Matt Ziegler
Ashley Thornton
Thuy-Linh Le
Katherine Coyle
Vasu Lab Alumni
Post-Docs (15 Total)
Ph.D. Dissertations (33 total)
M.S. Thesis (53 Total)
REU Summer Interns and Vistors
Post-Docs (15 Total)
| Name | Current Position |
|---|---|
| Dr. Carlos Velez | Founder and CEO, Deep Flow LLC, FL |
| Dr. Batikan Köroğlu | Research Staff, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, CA |
| Dr. Frank Barnes | R&D Engineer, Aerojet-Rocketdyne, 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 | Principal CFD Application Engineer, Cadence Design Systems, FL |
| Dr. Erik Ninnemann | Test Engineer II, SpaceX, TX |
| Dr. Zachary Loparo | Research Engineer, Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD), MD |
| Dr. Kyle Thurmond | Staff Scientist, Los Alamos National Lab, NM |
| Dr. Anthony Terracciano | Spacecraft Propulsion Engineer, Aegis Aerospace Inc., FL |
| Dr. Ramees Rahman | Research Assistant Professor, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Justin Urso | Research Assistant Professor, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Gihun Kim | Research Engineer, Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD), MD |
| Dr. Cory Kinney | Aero Design Engineer – Combustion, Siemens Energy, FL |
Ph.D. Dissertations (33 total)
| Name | Current Position |
|---|---|
| Prof. Ghazal Barari | Assistant Professor, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, AZ |
| Dr. Carlos Velez |
Founder and CEO, Deep Flow LLC, FL |
| Dr. Batikan Köroğlu | Staff Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, CA |
| Dr. Anthony Terracciano | Spacecraft Propulsion Engineer, Aegis Aerospace Inc., 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 | Principal CFD Application Engineer, Cadence Design Systems, 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, Los Alamos National Lab, NM |
| Dr. Erik Ninnemann | Test Engineer II, SpaceX, TX |
| Dr. Andrew Laich | Rocket Propulsion Engineer II, Blue Origin, WA |
| 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 | Research Engineer, Army Research Lab, MD |
| Dr. Jessica Baker | Propulsion Engineer, Space Force, FL |
| Dr. Ritesh Ghorpade | Post-Doc, Vasu Lab, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Juan Cruz Pellegrini | Propulsion Engineer, Northrop Grumman, FL |
| Dr. Michael Pierro | Post-Doc, Vasu Lab, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Sydney Briggs | Sr. Systems Integration and Test Engineer, Lockheed Martin, FL |
| Dr. Robert Greene | Senior Mechanical Engineer, ASML, CA |
| Dr. Daniel Dyson | Propulsion Test Engineer, Relativity Space, MS |
| Dr. Jose Bobren-Diaz | NOAA |
| Dr. Nishan Khanal | Post-Doc, Vasu Lab, UCF, FL |
| Dr. Jonathan McGaunn | Research Engineer, GE Aerospace, NY |
| Dr. Nicolas Berube | Senior Aerospace Engineer, Carrier, NY |
| Dr. Marc Etienne | |
| Dr. Louis Vest | Research Engineer, NSWC IHD, MD |
M.S. Thesis (53 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 | Test Engineer, Blue Origin, FL | |
| Michelle Franzen | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Marzuqa Ahmed | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Nikolas Hulliger | Continued PhD at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Stuttgart, Germany |
|
| Cooper Mills | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Lucas Pitts | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Zachary Morris | Systems Engineer, Lockheed Martin Space, CO | |
| Fawzan Ahmed | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Alejandro Puerta-Alvardo | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Kesly Lubin | ||
| Bryan Suarez | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Valerie Rodriguez | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Diego Ruiz Pena | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Tyler Kreuscher | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Oli Valenzuela | Continued PhD at UCF, FL | |
| Guillermo Barrios | Continued PhD at GE Aerospace, NY |
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, Point Park University* | 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