Daniel Cadel, 2021

Dr. Daniel Cadel is an engineer in the Propulsors Branch at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division in Bethesda, MD, where he is helping to lead several R&D projects supporting the current and future Navy fleet. He started his career developing and implementing laser-based instrumentation to study hydrodynamics and turbulence on large scale ship models in the Resistance and Propulsion Branch at Carderock. During this time he was a recipient of the Technical Director’s Innovation Challenge research grant. He then moved to a position in program management at the Washington Navy Yard as the Propulsion System Integration Team Lead in the Columbia Class Submarine Program Office, serving as the primary point of contact for the Columbia propulsor across multiple government and private organizations.

Dr. Cadel received his bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2012, and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech under the guidance of Dr. Todd Lowe in 2016. His doctoral research was focused on instrumentation development and boundary layer turbulence as applied primarily to wind energy. While at Virginia Tech, he was a founding member and president of the AOE Graduate Student Association and was a mentor to several undergraduates in his research group. He has participated annually in the AOE Alumni Mentoring Program, and serves in both formal and informal mentorship roles at the U.S. Navy.