MechSE associate professor Kelly Stephani has been appointed to the Board on Army Research and Development for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
This board serves as the convening authority to conduct, facilitate, and manage periodic discussions, workshops, and studies on science and technical topics of interest to the U.S. Army, as determined by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Science and Technology. Under its auspices, the board establishes the Research Program Review and Analysis Committee, which reviews the Army research programs that are not in a Science & Technology Objective or Army Capability Enabler but are initially research in nature.
The board also works to identify scientific and technology enablers that merit additional study and at the request of the sponsor, will oversee the execution of studies, workshops, and roundtables.
In MechSE, Stephani leads the Computational Kinetics Group, which utilizes direct simulation of molecular dynamics for improved modeling of nonequilibrium and noncontinuum flows, fundamental transport processes, and material response within multiscale, multiphysics systems. She also serves in the leadership for the Center for Hypersonics and Entry Systems Studies (CHESS) (https://chess.grainger.illinois.edu) in The Grainger College of Engineering and is Co-Director of the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (https://hypersonics.tamu.edu) under the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office, OUSD(R&E).