Gas & Plasma Dynamics Laboratory

Our group attended and presented at the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Fall Meeting 2024, hosted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During the event, Peter Bachle gave a lightning talk & poster presentation on LuSTR21 Project, while Jacob Ortega gave a poster presentation on his LISAP-MSE research….

Both Joshua and Samuel Patterson started their masters with our group!…

Our group attended and presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Ascend 2025 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. During the event, Alexander Schumacher presented our progress on the LISAP-MSE research….

Dr. Han is one of two recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Faculty Award by the Missouri S&T Staff Council!…

Dr. David Lund defense of his dissertation and passed…

Samuel Patterson won second place at the MST MAE Future Research Pioneers Program (FRPP) poster presentations!…

The following members of our lab have been accepted into the Missouri Space Grant Consortium Internship Program for the Fall 2023-Spring 2024 session. Easton Ingram, Ethan Bautsch, Ryan Baur, Lucas Scott, Justin Viers, and Jonah Little!…

Victor Mbanugo joins our group as a Ph.D. Student. Welcome!…

Dr. Han was recognized as the College of Engineering and Computing Dean’s Scholar for AY 2022-2024 at Missouri S&T….

Dr. Han attended and presented at the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Fall Meeting 2022 held at the University of Texas at El Paso and online….

Josh successfully defended his M.S. thesis titled “Numerical Investigations of 2-D Magnetic Nozzles on Plasma Plumes”. Congratulations to Josh!…

Dr. Han gave an invited talk (virtual) titled “Aerospace Plasma Research at Missouri S&T: From Space Propulsion to Lunar Exploration” at Worcester Polytechnic Institute….

Aaron and Easton both received NASA-Missouri Space Grant Consortium’s Undergraduate Research Internship scholarship. Congratulations!…

David, Aaron, and Easton presented our work at the 7th Annual Meeting of SIAM Central States Section held at the Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. The title of David’s talk was “Kinetic Simulations of Charging of Irregularly-Shaped Dust Grains in Space Plasmas”. The title of Aaron and Easton’s talk was “Kinetic Modeling of Electrostatic Transport…

A project, titled “Chemical Hazards Mitigation through Cold Plasma Treatment and Shielding” and in collaboration with Dr. Yue-Wern Huang (Biological Sciences) and Dr. Marek Locmelis (Geosciences and Geology) of MST, is selected for funding by Army Research Laboratory….

A project, titled “Collaborative Research: CyberTraining: Pilot: Research Workforce Development for Deep Learning Systems in Advanced GPU Cyberinfrastructure” and in collaboration with Dr. Xin Liang (CS) and Dr. Tony Luo (CS) of MST and colleagues at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, is selected for funding by NSF….

Dr. Han attended the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG)) held in Laurel, MD and online….

As the Fall 2022 semester starts, our groups is growing bigger – two new Ph.D. students, Emmanuel Wie-Addo and Kolawole Adesina, will join us in the Fall. Welcome!…

Dr. Han attended the 2nd Annual NASA-APL Lunar ISRU, Excavation, and Construction Technology Review held at Houston, TX and online….

Dr. Han attended the 2022 NASA Exploration Science Forum, held in-person and virtually at the University of Colorado Boulder….

Dr. Han attended the 32nd International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics (RGD32) and gave a presentation titled “Kinetic Particle Simulations of Plasma Charging and Dust Transport near the Lunar Terminator” (Special Session on Dust in Lunar Exploration)….

Dr. Han attended the 37th International Electric Propulsion Conference (IEPC 2022) held at Boston/MIT….

Our paper co-authored with Prof. Grace Yan of Civil Engineering and Prof. Xiaoming He of Mathematics and titled “Kinetic Particle Simulations of Plasma and Dust Environments at Robotic Construction Sites near the Lunar Terminators” got accepted by ASCE Journal of Aerospace Engineering!…

David presented a poster titled “Kinetic Particle Simulations of Charging of Irregularly-Shaped Dust Grains in Low Temperature Collisionless Plasmas” at the 2022 Joint Conference on Electrostatics (ESA 2022), Charlotte, North Carolina, USA….

Six talented UG students – Kevin Marshall, Nick Graham, Easton Ingram, Aaron Berkhoff, and Kostas Kakadiaris of MST, and Tykerria Fowler of Benedict College (through MST’s Summer Engineering Research Academy) – joined our group for summer research projects. Welcome!…

Jianxun successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled “Fully Kinetic Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Plasma-Surface-Dust Interactions for Lunar Exploration”. Congratulations to Dr. Zhao!…

Jianxun and David presented our two studies at the 49th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS 2022) held at Seattle, WA and online. Jianxun’s talk was titled “Development of a Fully Kinetic Particle Simulation Code for Coupled Plasma-Dust Transport”. David’s poster was titled “Kinetic Particle Simulations of Charging of Irregularly-Shaped Dust Grains in Low…

Our case study paper co-authored with Prof. Grace Yan of Civil Engineering and titled “Tornado-induced Structural Damage based on Reconnaissance Surveys of 2019 Jefferson City, MO Tornado and Previous Notable Tornadoes” got accepted by Natural Hazards Review!…

Jianxun and David presented our work titled “Development of a fully kinetic particle simulation code for coupled plasma-dust transport” at the 16th Spacecraft Charging and Technology Conference (SCTC)….

Jacob has been awarded the Kummer Innovation and Entrepreneurship Doctoral Fellowship to study Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering in the Fall! Congratulations!…

Dr. Han gave an invited talk titled “Kinetic Particle Simulations of Plasma Charging and Dust Transport near the Lunar Terminator” at Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium (LSIC) Extreme Environments – Space Weather / Plasma Environments group meeting….

A project on Moon mining – use magnetic and electrostatic technologies to more efficiently separate calcium- and aluminum-containing minerals from the lunar regolith – led by Dr. Leslie Gertsch, is selected for funding by NASA. [link]…

Our paper first-authored by David and titled “Weak Scaling of the Parallel Immersed Finite Element Particle-in-Cell (PIFE-PIC) Framework with Lunar Plasma Charging Simulations” got accepted by the journal Computational Particle Mechanics! [link]…

Our group attended the hybrid in-person and virtual AIAA SciTech Forum 2022. David and Jianxun did a great job presenting our papers on the numerical modeling and simulation front!…

Dr. Han is awarded FY 2022 AFOSR YIP. [link]…

Jianxun and David presented at the Midwest Numerical Analysis Day (MWNAD) 2021 held at Rolla, MO. Jianxun’s talk was on “Kinetic particle modeling of plasma charging and dust transport near the lunar terminator”. David’s talk was on “Strong and Weak Scaling Performance of the Parallel Immersed Finite Element Particle-in-Cell (PIFE-PIC) Framework”. [link]…

Our paper first-authored by Josh and titled “Numerical Investigations of 2-D Planar Magnetic Nozzle Effects on Pulsed Plasma Plumes” got accepted by the The Aeronautical Journal!…

Jacob Ortega joined our group. Welcome!…

Our paper first-authored by Jianxun and titled “Photoelectron Sheath and Plasma Charging on the Lunar Surface: Semianalytic Solutions and Fully-Kinetic Particle-in-Cell Simulations” got accepted by the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science! [link]…

David Lund is awarded a NASA fellowship through the NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO)!…

Our proposal titled “Ultrafine Inorganic Particle Formation in Plasma-Assisted Combustion” is selected for funding by NSF. [link]…

A project titled “Multiscale Computational Modeling of Dusty Plasmas Near Space Surfaces”, in collaboration with Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is selected for funding by NASA. [link]…