ProfessorBen Thornber

PhD (Cranfield) MSc (Imperial) MEng (Edin) MSS (ISU) GAICD CEng FRAeS FHEA

Professor Ben Thornber's research program lies at the intersection of fundamental and applied research in turbulent flows.

Ben graduated with a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering and Management Techniques from the University of Edinburgh in 2001. He then undertook a Masters in Space Studies at the International Space University, including a period of work at NASA-JPL. Deciding to focus on aerodynamics, he moved to Imperial College to undertake an MSc in Computational Fluid Dynamics. This led to a position in the Aerothermodynamics department at the European Space Agency. Ben returned to academia at Cranfield University in 2004 to undertake a PhD in Compressible Turbulent Mixing, where he continued research in computational fluid dynamics methods and applications as a Research Fellow and then Lecturer. In 2011 he spent 5 months at the University of Sydney as an International Visiting Research Fellow, and returned in 2013 to lecture in Aeronautical Engineering (Aerodynamics) in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, and is currently the Associate Dean Research for the Faculty of Engineering and Professor of Aerospace Engineering.

Ben has strong formal and informal collaborations with industry, including Jaguar Land-Rover, Ricardo, DSTG, LLNL, EADS, ESA, ARA, AWE, ITER, AMPAC-ISP, Bluebear, Moog, Reaction Engines Ltd, Red Bull Technology, Thales, Williams F1 and MBDA.