Towery awarded 2017/2018 Geers Fellowship
Congratulations to Colin Towery, who has been awarded the 2017/2018 Thomas & Brenda Geers Graduate Fellowship! The program honors graduate students conducting thesis work in solid and/or fluid mechanics who exhibit extraordinary capabilities and potential.
Colin is a fifth year PhD student in Professor Peter Hamlington鈥檚 research group, the Colin has performed exceptional research in the area of fluid mechanics, with a specific focus on computational fluid dynamics, compressible flow, and combustion. His research has explored turbulent premixed flames in various contexts, from their role in the performance and stability of rotating detonation engines to their properties under highly turbulent conditions.
In particular, Colin was the first to quantify combustion-induced energy backscatter in premixed combustion, a result of substantial importance for modeling turbulent flames, and is currently preparing a manuscript that characterizes autoignition over a range of turbulent Mach numbers, which is important for the operation of scramjet engines.
He has served as a leader within TESLa and is always eager and willing to generate computational data and write analysis codes for other students. Most recently, he demonstrated his impact on the research of others by writing a new spectral large eddy simulation code that will be used extensively by TESLa and others. Beyond his own work, Colin also excitedly engages in and improves the research of those around him.
In addition to his research, Colin has also served in numerous leadership positions within the department and beyond. These positions include serving as Fundraising Chair and Secretary for the Graduate Engineering Annual Research and Recruitment Symposium (GEAR2S) and as Timing & AV Chair for the 70th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics of the American Physical Society. Colin has also been active in organizing the Boulder Fluid and Thermal Sciences Seminar series and the Rocky Mountain Fluid Mechanics Research Symposium, both of which are designed to bring together fluid mechanics researchers along the Front Range.
