Hisham Ali is a currently a member of technical staff at The Aerospace Corporation in the Astrodynamics Department, Colorado Springs, where he serves as a Mission Design and Astrodynamics Analyst. He will begin as an assistant professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences in January 2022.
Before beginning at the Aerospace Corporation, he was a research faculty member and postdoctoral scholar in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he conducted research as Co-PI of an award from NASA Langley Research Center in the High Power Electric Propulsion (HPEPL) and Space Systems Design (SSDL) Laboratories while serving as the Co-Program Coordinator for the Georgia Tech University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) and an instructor in the Aerospace Engineering program.
Hisham’s dissertation work focused on magnetohydrodynamic interaction for atmospheric entry plasmas and included both analytical and experimental approaches, including the development of a continuous, artificially ionized, low-density supersonic plasma wind-tunnel. His technical background spans a range of aerospace engineering disciplines and includes Visiting Space Technologist tenures at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Langley Research Center, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Hisham’s current research interests are in space systems, magnetohydrodynamics, hypersonics, and plasma physics.
Hisham earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering with minors in Mathematics and Computer Based Honors from The University of Alabama in May 2013 and earned his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in May 2015 and August 2019, respectively.
Hisham was awarded a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship in 2013 and is the recipient of several other awards, such as the Alfred P. Sloan Minority PhD Fellowship (2015), the Georgia Institute of Technology Presidential Fellowship (2013), the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (2012), and awards for outstanding oral and poster presentations focused on Planetary Entry, Descent, and Landing technology at the annual International Planetary Probe Workshop (2019, 2017, 2015, 2014).
As an undergraduate student at The University of Alabama, Hisham was the founder and president of The University of Alabama Hovercraft team from 2012-2013, during which time the team designed, built, tested, and flew a human piloted hovercraft in the inaugural April 2013 ‘Hoverbowl’ race against Auburn University. In addition to his engineering studies, Hisham played alto saxophone as a member of The University of Alabama’s Million Dollar Marching Band. In his free time, Hisham enjoys fitness, barbecuing, technology, and spending time with his family as a husband and father.
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