Iain D. Boyd is a new Professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and is also National Security Faculty Director of the CU Boulder Research and Innovation Office.
Boyd joins CU Boulder following two decades at the University of Michigan, where he most recently served as the James E. Knott Professor of Engineering in their Department of Aerospace Engineering.
His research interests include hypersonic aerothermodynamics, electric propulsion, rocket plumes and computation of nonequilibrium gas and plasma dynamics.
Boyd received a PhD in aeronautics and astronautics in 1988 from the University of Southampton in England. Boyd worked for four years at NASA Ames Research Center in aerothermodynamics and space propulsion. He then spent six years as a faculty member in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University.
He has authored over 200 journal articles, more than 300 conference papers, and published a book entitled “Nonequilibrium Gas Dynamics and Molecular Simulation.” He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer and Physical Review Fluids.
Boyd is a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA), the American Physical Society, and the Royal Aeronautical Society.
In 2017, Boyd was awarded the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Award for Exceptional Public Service for his leadership role in the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (AFSAB).