Christine Gilbert awarded Professor Owen Hughes Junior Faculty Fellowship
Christine Gilbert, associate professor of aerospace and ocean engineering in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been awarded the Professor Owen Hughes Junior Faculty Fellowship for Ship Structures and Ocean Engineering by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
The Professor Owen Hughes Junior Faculty Fellowship for Ship Structures and Ocean Engineering Junior Faculty Fellowship was established with a generous gift from Maestro Marine LLC. This endowment was created to enable the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering to generate new interest in science and engineering challenges faced in modern ship designs.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 2016, Gilbert researches the multi-physics problem of fluid-structure interaction, particularly in ocean vessels and structures.
Her early work on the mechanics of imploding shell structures informs the design of resilient ocean structures, including submarines and subsea pipelines, and the assessment of the effects of pressure waves generated by imploding structures on other nearby structures. More recent research has focused on water entry of a flexible wedge, design and analysis of high-speed craft, seaplane landing and take-off performance, and the behavior of biological structures just below the air-sea interface, with applications to biomimetic design.
Gilbert teaches and mentors the next generation of ocean engineers, including in surface and subsurface vessel dynamics in waves, and she led a major instrumentation upgrade to the Virginia Tech Towing Tank.
Coupled with her research excellence, her contributions to teaching ensure that students are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to lead the future of ocean technology.
