Professor Venkat Raman Appointed James Arthur Nicholls Collegiate Professor
New professorship honored former aerospace engineering faculty member
Congratulations to Professor Venkat Raman who has been appointed the James Arthur Nicholls Collegiate Professor of Engineering, effective May 1, 2025 for a five-year renewable term. This Professorship title stands in recognition of Prof. Raman’s outstanding contributions towards research and leadership in the field of propulsion, specifically in the development of computational models for turbulent and high-speed reacting flows.
The University of Michigan awards collegiate professorships to prominent faculty members, as the distinction stands as an important means of honoring faculty members who have contributed significantly to the university. This new Professorship was established in March 2025, in honor of former College of Engineering faculty member, James Arthur Nicholls, who passed away in October 2018.
“Prof. Nicholls’ impact on the field of propulsion can not be overstated, and his legacy of research excellence, focusing on elegant experiments and novel theories, stands as a symbol of Michigan Aerospace and the propulsion group within the department,” stated Professor Raman. “Not only was he a tremendous researcher and educator, but his view of rocket propulsion, formed in the mid-1960s, is now reshaping every aspect of propulsion. From rockets to hypersonic vehicles to space thrusters, his work on detonation-based engines might be the future for propulsion. It is truly an honor to be linked to his name through this Professorship.”
Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Professor Raman received his PhD from Iowa State University in 2003 from the Department of Chemical Engineering. Once graduated, he was a NASA/Center for Turbulence Research Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University and a research associate in the Center for Integrated Turbulence Simulations before joining the University of Texas at Austin’s Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Department as a faculty member.
Professor Raman then joined the University of Michigan as an associate professor in 2014, where he was quickly promoted to professor and has since advised 40 PhD and MS students. In addition to his dedication towards teaching, he has also published over 180 peer-reviewed articles in journals and conference proceedings.
As a leader in the field of computational models for turbulent reacting flows, he has received an NSF CAREER Award, Distinguished Paper Award at the International Combustion Symposium, the Moncrief Grand Challenge Award, and is also a recipient of the George J. Huebener, Jr. Research Excellence Award from University of Michigan’s College of Engineering. Additionally, he was elected a fellow of the Combustion Institute in 2022 and currently serves as an associate editor for both Combustion and Flame and the AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power.
Among his many accomplishments, Professor Raman heads the Advanced Propulsion Concepts Lab at the University of Michigan and is either leading or co-leading multiple centers and projects throughout the university. Starting this summer, Raman will lead as Director of the newly formed Center for Prediction, Reasoning and Intelligence for Multiphysics Exploration (C-PRIME), which aims to channel innovations in artificial intelligence, computational science, and computer science towards applications in diverse fields of national interest, including hypersonics and energy conversion