Thomas Corke, the Clark Equipment Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, has been selected by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) for its distinguished Dryden Lectureship in Research.
Corke will deliver his lecture, “Active Drag Reduction with Net Power Savings in Turbulent Boundary Layers – Physics and Scaling,” at the Institute’s January 2026 meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Corke is internationally recognized for research that encompasses multiple areas, including fluid instabilities and transition, plasma dynamics, and flow control. He is the founding director of the Notre Dame Institute for Flow Physics and Control (FlowPAC), one of the world’s largest and most active research groups focused on fluid dynamics.
“Professor Corke is a global leader in his field,” said Patricia J. Culligan, the Matthew H. McCloskey Dean of Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences at the University of Notre Dame. “He has not just contributed to his field, he has helped define it.”
“This award highlights the respect his peers have for his contributions to the fields of aerodynamics and fluid mechanics,” said Glen Niebur, professor and chair of the department of aerospace and mechanical engineering. “Professor Corke is a renowned expert in flow control—especially complex flows that transition from laminar to turbulent regimes. In addition to his scholarly contributions, he has translated his discoveries into industry applications in transportation and energy.”
Corke’s research has been the catalyst for a broad range of applications. Aerodynamic performance enhancement, flight control, the internal flow of gas-turbine engines, acoustic noise control, and wind flows around buildings and structures are just some of the subjects in which his research is foundational.
In the lecture, to be delivered on Tuesday, January 13 at 3:30 p.m., during the Institute’s SciTech Forum, he will examine a long-anticipated breakthrough: utilizing plasma aerodynamics to control turbulence in the boundary layer—the layer of roughest air—surrounding aircraft and thus improve performance. Corke will review experiments he and his research group have conducted and reveal plans for an upcoming test flight.
The Dryden Lectureship in Research is one of the most prestigious lectureships awarded by the Institute. Named in honor of Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, a renowned aerospace leader and a director of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics as well as the first deputy administrator of NASA, the award emphasizes the importance of basic research in advancing aeronautics and astronautics.
Corke earned his Ph.D. from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1999. In addition to his teaching and research at the University, Corke served as the third director of the Hessert Laboratory for Aerospace Research and, since its launch in 2020, as the director of the Hypersonic Systems Initiative, a catalyst for new cross-cutting research that pools resources and fosters multidisciplinary research funding opportunities.
He is a fellow of the American Physics Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the society that awarded him the distinguished lectureship, AIAA.
—Mary Hendriksen, Notre Dame Engineering