Pradeep Raj, 2022
Dr. Pradeep Raj joined Virginia Tech in 2012 as a Professor in the Aerospace and Ocean Engineering department after a 32-year career with Lockheed Martin. As the primary instructor of record of the Capstone Air Vehicle Design (AVD) courses, he has coached and mentored 86 student design teams and nearly 700 seniors over the past 10 years. These teams have enjoyed notable success by securing one or more of the top three places every year in national and international undergraduate student design competitions sponsored by AIAA, NASA, and SAE International. He was also instrumental in creating and sustaining unique experiential learning opportunities for the VT AOE students through international collaborative design programs with Loughborough University in UK, and Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany. In addition to teaching the design courses, he has collaborated with his colleagues in AOE as well as in ME (Mechanical Engineering) and ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) in conducting research in Multidisciplinary Analysis, Design, and Optimization (MADO) research.
Raj joined Lockheed-California Company in Burbank in 1979 as an Aerodynamics Engineer-Senior. For the first 20 years, he held many positions of increasing responsibilities to lead, direct, and conduct research and development (R&D) campaigns aimed at significantly enhancing the effectiveness of applied computational aerodynamics capabilities for flight vehicle design. He singularly focused his efforts on devising and executing a three-pronged strategy of (i) collaborating with universities and government laboratories for algorithmic advances; (ii) securing in-house resources and external contract R&D; and (iii) leveraging supercomputing capabilities and related expertise of NASA. In recognition of his proven record of technical contributions and future potential, Raj was selected as a Technical Fellow—the then highest level of technical leadership career path reporting to VP of Engineering. During his eight-year tenure starting in January 1992, he took the initiative of proactively engaging leaders in Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), NASA, and academia to focus their efforts on further advancing the effectiveness of computational simulations for designing quality, affordable aircraft. In the leadership/management role for the last 12 years with Lockheed Martin, he successfully led a team of exceptional technology leaders to formulate and implement cost-effective strategies to deliver game-changing technologies that enable leap-ahead capabilities for all company product lines. He retired in 2011 as a Director from the Advanced Development Programs division–commonly known as the Skunk Works®–which is widely recognized for creating breakthrough technologies and landmark aircraft.
Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, Raj spent one year (1978-79) as an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri University of Science & Technology) teaching courses in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and heat transfer; and two years (1976-78) as a research assistant professor at the Iowa State University where he developed and applied the then state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics methods to investigate merging of wake vortices shed behind transport aircraft wings during takeoff.
Raj earned a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1976. Before going to GT, he earned a Master of Engineering (with Distinction) in Aeronautical Engineering in 1972, and a Bachelor of Engineering (with Distinction) in Electrical Technology in 1970, both from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
Raj is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), and the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering (IAE).