Professor Vigor Yang Appointed the John L. and Genevieve H. McCain Chair in Mechanical Engineering

Professor Vigor Yang has been appointed the John L. and Genevieve H. McCain Chair in Mechanical Engineering. The John L. and Genevieve H. McCain Chair in Engineering was established by John L. McCain, in memory of his wife Genevieve, to enhance the University’s commitment to the Commonwealth by providing a distinguished faculty member in the College of Engineering the opportunity to continue and further scholarly excellence through contributions to instruction, research, and public service.  Yang's research interests include combustion instabilities in propulsion systems, chemically reacting flows in air-breathing and rocket engines, combustion of energetic materials, and high-pressure thermodynamics and transport.  He has supervised 41 Ph.D. and 15 M.S. theses, and collaborated with 21 post-doctoral fellows and visiting professors. 

Yang is the author or co-author of more than 250 technical papers in the areas of propulsion and combustion, and has published nine comprehensive volumes on rocket and air-breathing propulsion.  He has been the editor-in-chief of Journal of Propulsion and Power of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) since 2001.  He also serves on the editorial advisory boards of seven international journals, including Combustion & Flame, Progress in Energy & Combustion Science, Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, Combustion, Explosion, and Shock Waves (Fizika Goreniya i Vzryva), Journal of Chinese Institute of Engineers, Journal of Aeronautics, Astronautics, and Aviation, and JANNAF Journal of Propulsion & Energetics.  Yang is the founder of the International Symposium on Liquid Space Propulsion.  Yang has also been a consultant to many government and industrial organizations, including NASA, DoD, ESA, JAXA, GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, Aerojet, ATK-Thiokol, etc.  In addition, he serves on a variety of steering committees and review boards for government agencies and universities in US and abroad. 

Dr. Yang received the Penn State Engineering Society Outstanding Teaching Award (1989), Outstanding Research Award (1992), and Premier Research Award (2005).  He is a recipient of the AIAA Best Paper Awards in Propellants and Combustion (1996) and Air-Breathing Propulsion (2004).  He also received the Air-Breathing Propulsion Award from AIAA in 2005 and is a fellow of AIAA and American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 

Congratulations Professor Yang!