Joseph M. Powers, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), one of the most prestigious honors in the aerospace field.
Fellow status within the AIAA is conferred upon individuals in recognition of their notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics and astronautics.
Powers was cited by the review committee for “careful, innovative computational elucidation of multiscale high-speed reactive flow physics and sustained leadership in aerospace propulsion, book authorship, journal editing, and aerospace education.”
“Since joining the Notre Dame faculty in 1989, Joe Powers has served in many leadership roles in the department, college and university,” said Glen Niebur, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering and department chair. “He has made important contributions to aerospace research throughout his career, particularly in advancing our understanding of detonation and combustion through theory and simulations.”
Powers is the author of three highly regarded books, including Mechanics of Fluids (2024), which recently earned the 2025 AIAA Pendray Aerospace Literature Award. His earlier works, Combustion Thermodynamics and Dynamics (2016), and Mathematical Methods in Engineering (2015), are foundational texts widely used by engineers and researchers.
Since 2016, Powers has also played a key role in advancing aerospace knowledge as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Propulsion and Power. Under his leadership, the journal’s influence and reach have grown significantly, reflecting his commitment to supporting high-quality scholarship in the field.
His teaching has been recognized with numerous awards, including the College of Engineering Outstanding Teacher of the Year (1994, 2014) and the Dockweiler Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising (2018).
Notable past AIAA fellows include Igor Sikorsky, Theodore von Kármán, and Albert Zahm, a pioneer in American aeronautical engineering and professor at the University of Notre Dame.
Powers and the other members of the AIAA Class of 2025 Fellows will be recognized during a ceremony in April in Washington, D.C.
— Karla Cruise, Notre Dame Engineering; Photo by Wes Evard, Notre Dame Engineering