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Faculty Highlight
Merrill W. Beckstead
During the past year Dr. Beckstead has been on leave. He didn't go anywhere in particular (other than traveling alot), but stayed at BYU spending full time on his research projects. In particular he worked at getting a new project started that he received during the past year. The project is a joint research contract with eight other principal investigators from seven other universities. The BYU portion of the contract will be approximately $150,000 per year with the total contract value for all universities of $1,600,000 per year. The contract was awarded by the Office of Naval Research and is scheduled to last for five years. The program is part of a multi-disciplinary, university research initiative (MURI), and two separate contracts were issued. One contract was awarded through the California Institute of Technology, and Professor Beckstead is part of that team. The universities involved are BYU, Cal Tech, Penn State, Delaware, Emory, Georgia Tech., Tennessee, and Alabama (Huntsville). The other contract is for $1,400,000 and was awarded
through the University of Illinois, involving eleven professors at seven different universities. Those universities include, Yale, Penn State, City University of New York, New Orleans, Utah, and Central Florida. Prof. Beckstead's efforts will also include coordinating efforts between seven researchers at five research institutes in Russia. Although the contract was awarded to Cal Tech, Prof. Beckstead is the Technical Director for the program. He is responsible for coordinating the technical activities between the eight universities, the five Russian institutes and the University of Illinois program. Prof. Beckstead took leave from BYU last year to help get the program started. He has been involved in organizing and attending several coordination meetings between the different groups of researchers. He has visited Russia the past two summers to initiate and coordinate the research activities of the Russian scientists.
The technical objective of this program is to identify and develop an understanding of the mechanisms governing the combustion instability characteristics of solid propellants and how they influence rocket motor behavior. The multi-disciplinary nature of the program involves theoretical and experimental chemists, synthesis chemists, combustion experts (such as Prof. Beckstead), fluid dynamists, and rocket experts. The unstable combustion of propellants has been a problem in rockets since the inception of rockets, and the basis for resolving those problems has been very limited. A primary goal of the program is to develop an understanding of the molecular processes involved in combustion to the extent that new propellant ingredients can be formulated with the molecular properties needed to provide stable combustion. This is an enormous challenge, but utilizing the wide variety of scientific skills available from the group of scientists, it should be possible.
Professor Beckstead's personal research will focus on two areas. He is involved in developing a model for the combustion of propellant ingredients based on fundamental chemical kinetics. The second aspect of his work will be to develop a model of the combustion of aluminum, which is often added to solid propellants. In addition he will oversee and coordinate actual rocket motor firings which will be performed by the Navy as part of this program. The size of the contract will allow funding for at least four graduate students as well as some undergraduate students.
Even with all of this research activity, he was still able to get in his usual backpacking/fishing trips into the Uintah mountains with his family, and took one trip into the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming with his son and son-in-law.
Co-Op and Internships Opportunities?
It is important for our students to have one or more chemical engineering work experiences before graduation if they are to compete for the best jobs. If you have co-op or internship opportunities at your place of employment, would you please let us know? Send any information concerning whom to contact and how our students can apply for these opportunities to Dr. W. Vincent Wilding, the co-op & internship coordinator for the department. We are committed to helping our students obtain these work experiences, and we appreciate your help on their behalf. We have great students and are confident that they will make a positive contribution to the companies that provide these opportunities.
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