PhD Student Awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship

Congratulations to Michigan Aerospace PhD student Eytan Adler for being awarded the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, one of the most prestigious awards doctoral candidates can receive through the Rackham Graduate School. This fellowship helps support outstanding students who are actively working on their dissertations that are unusually creative, ambitious and impactful.

“It’s wonderful that Rackham is helping fund sustainable aviation. I’m incredibly grateful for its support and excited to continue learning,” Adler stated.

Adler is a member of the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) Lab, run by Joaquim R. R. A. Martins, the Pauline M. Sherman Collegiate Professor of Aerospace Engineering. “Eytan’s groundbreaking review paper on hydrogen-powered aircraft, along with his design optimization efforts, are propelling sustainable aviation forward. His ability to create inspiring and clear visual explanations has been invaluable,” commented Professor Martins.

Adler’s research uses numerical optimization to investigate hydrogen-powered aircraft, a type of aircraft that could dramatically reduce the aviation industry’s climate impact. He currently is developing tools to determine aircraft configurations suited to hydrogen, alleviate fuel cell and electric aircraft cooling challenges, and optimize hydrogen storage tanks. Additionally, ducted heat exchangers, which Adler is optimizing (shown above), efficiently transfer waste heat from fuel cells and electrical components to the surrounding air. These devices help enable future hydrogen fuel cells and battery electric aircraft.