Plenty of awards and grants for VKI researchers in 2021

We are proud to announce that our researchers have been rewarded for their works during the year 2021.

All Rewarded People

Nicolas CorthoutsPhD Candidate

David HenneauxPhD Candidate

Pietro ParodiPhD Candidate

Guillaume Grossir Research Engineer

Pedro MarquesPhD Candidate

Fabio PinoPhD Candidate

Tania FerreiraResearch Engineer

Matilde FiorePhD Candidate

Riccardo Toracchio PhD Candidate

Enrico Anfuso PhD Candidate

FRIA Grants

Nicolas Corthouts, PhD candidate in the aerospace and aeronautics department, was awarded a 1^st FRIA grant for his work on the development of a 3D, time-accurate hybridized discontinuous Galerkin solver for inductively coupled plasma. Pedro Marques, PhD candidate in environmental and applied fluid dynamics department, received the same grant for his work on the thermo-fluid dynamics of cryogenic liquid storage: modelling and experiments.
Matilde Fiore, David Henneaux, Fabio Pino and Riccardo Toracchio received a 2^nd grant for their respective works on:
- Thermal turbulence modelling of low Prandtl number flows via data analysis and machine learning
- Development of high-fidelity numerical methods for the simulation of the aerothermal ablation of space debris during atmospheric entry
- Feedback control of liquid metal coatings
- Performance and stability analysis of a highly loaded low-pressure compressor under distorted inflow conditions

FWO Grant

Pietro Parodi has received an FWO grant to sponsor his research work on "Advancing modeling and particle methods for plasma simulation applied to Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion". Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion is an advanced concept which aims at flying satellites in very low altitude orbits around Earth and other planets. Through the collaboration of the Centre for mathematical Plasma-Astrophysics at KU Leuven and VKI, the PhD candidate will develop Particle-in-Cell/Direct Simulation Monte Carlo methods to investigate the plasma phenomena involved in electric propulsion and, more specifically, in the ABEP concept. This work will also support the development of the future Low-Density Facility for orbital simulation at VKI.

TomKat Postdoctoral Fellowship

Tania Ferreira, Research Engineer, is one of three awardees of the TomKat Postdoctoral Fellowship in Sustainable Energy. She will start her research on "quantifying and reducing the climate impact of contrails from hydrogen-powered aircraft" with Prof. Catherine Gorle and Prof. Juan Alonso next summer at Stanford University.

First Frank De Winne Fellowship

Enrico Anfuso has been awarded the first "Frank De Winne" fellowship. Enrico Anfuso, PhD Candidate at VKI/Vrije Universiteit Brussel conducts research into thermal protection systems to protect capsules from the extreme heat that occurs during the atmospheric return to the atmosphere.
We often see that in movies or on TV and shooting stars are the example of this, through the research of Enrico we can better protect returning capsules. The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics is looking forward to this collaboration with Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Within the program 'Flemish space economy', five 'Frank De Winne' fellowships have been awarded through the FWO. These fellowships are part of the 'Flemish space economy' impulse program that Flemish Science Policy Minister Hilde Crevits announced earlier this year. With this programme, Minister Crevits wants to expand space knowledge in Flanders, stimulate entrepreneurship and strengthen our international position with the available expertise.

AVT Young Contributor Award

Dr. Guillaume Grossir, research engineer at the von Karman Institute, has recently been recognized with the “AVT Panel Young Contributor Award” for all his research work within the framework of NATO Applied Vehicle Technology Panel.
This award recognizes the remarkable work carried out by Guillaume in the field of hypersonic flow. His contribution to publications for AVT-240 on “Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition Prediction“ testifies his continuous effort and technical expertise to bridge the gap between modern mechanism-based prediction methods and existing empirical methods in the prediction of transition in hypersonic flows which are of utmost relevance for the STO community and NATO. Beside his technical contributions Guillaume showed significant leadership skills as an organizer and Co-Chair of the AVT-325 Lecture Series on “Flow Characterization and Modeling of Hypersonic Wind tunnels“.
In addition, he made a noticeable and substantial contribution to the Educational Notes of AVT-325 on the same topic which will serve as the first step toward hypersonics for many young scientists to come.
The work of Guillaume at the von Karman is giving guidance to Research Master students at the VKI thereby contributing to the dissemination of knowledge, insight, and know-how about hypersonics to young scientists in the spirit of Theodore Von Kármán.
This eventually strengthens the link as well between the VKI and the NATO STO/AVT community.

Vulcanus in Europe

The von Karman Institute has the unique opportunity for EU companies to host Mr. Yaku Takeda, Japanese S&T university student as intern for R&D for a 7-month period as from the summer 2022. This has been possible through the programme VULCANUS in Europe. The EU-Japan Centre funds the student’s language course and pays the student a grant to cover the travel.

By taking part in Vulcanus, VKI gains an insight into Japanese business culture, benefits from a valuable addition to its R&D team and is assisted in the development of its business with Japan, through establishing links for a future cooperation. Read more on https://www.eu-japan.eu/events/vulcanus-europe.