Prof. Srinivasan Raghunathan is an Emeritus Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the School of Mechanical Aerospace Engineering, Queen’s University of Belfast, UK. During 1995-2005 he served as the Head of the School of Aeronautical Engineering and led the school to the research rating of 5 in the national Research Assessment Exercise. He was actively involved in the central equality scheme, Queen’s Gender initiative and the introduction of the single spine salary scale. In addition to this, he was the President of the Queen’s University Employees Club for over a period of 10 years.
During last 40 years, Prof. Raghunathan has conducted fundamental research in aerodynamics, from low speed to hypersonics and applied research in wave energy conversion, aircraft engine nacelle aerodynamics, missile aerodynamics and integrated aircraft technologies. His research on passive flow control of buffet due to transonic shock oscillations on airfoils has led to a patent with the UK MOD. The original aerodynamic design of the self-starting and high solidity Wells turbine is used for wave power generation worldwide. His applied research on Aircraft Nacelles led to strategic partnership and the establishment of Bombardier Airspace-Royal Academic chair with rolling research grants, Academia-Industry partnerships with several industries and a number of prestigious awards. The research on aircraft integrated technologies and industrial links also led to the establishment of the Centre of Excellence on Integrated Aircraft Technologies (CEIAT) at Queen’s University Belfast.
Prof. Raghunathan is a Principal investigator of over 40 research projects, with funding ranging from £200K to £3M from the UK Research Council (EPSRC), EU, and Industry. He has supervised over 40 Ph.D. and Post Doctoral Fellows, and has published 250 technical papers with over 100 of them featuring in various reputed journals.
Prof. Srinivasan Raghunathan obtained his M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1966 and 1970 respectively. He received his DSC from Queens University Belfast in 1991, for his thesis on “Contribution to transonic and Wells turbine aerodynamics.”
He is a member of a group of five on a UK science mission to Japan. He has been a member of various AIAA technical committees on Terrestrial Energy and Systems Engineering and on board of several advisory panels for Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering. He has been an advisor to the UK research initiative with India and Commonwealth fellowship and DTI programmes.
Prof. Raghunathan is a Fellow RaeS (FRAeS); an honorary member of the American-Romania Science academy; a recipient of Visiting Fellowships of the Japanese Promotion of Science; Royal Society-Indian Science Academy and Hertz Foundation Fellowship and the Northern Ireland Industrial Federation trophy, twice.
He has received the prestigious Royal Society – ESSO Gold Medal for his concept to build the first wave energy plant in the world in Islay (1994); the Royal Aeronautical Society Silver medal for work of an exceptional nature leading to major advances or significant contributions in aerospace. He has received OBE (2007) by Her Majesty The Queen for his contribution to education and aerospace research.