Deborah Levin
Deborah Ann Levin Fliflet is an American aerospace engineer, and a professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research involves the fluid dynamics, computational modeling, and simulation of hypersonic and chemically reacting flows.[1] Beyond aerospace engineering, she has also applied this work in planetary science, in the study of volcanism on Io.[2]
Education and career
[edit]Levin is originally from Brooklyn; her parents were a stockbroker and a schoolteacher.[3] She majored in chemistry at Stony Brook University, graduating in 1974. She continued her studies at the California Institute of Technology, where she completed her Ph.D. in 1979.[4] Her doctoral dissertation, Ab Initio Calculations of Processes in Low Energy Electron-Molecule Scattering, was supervised by B. Vince McKoy.[5]
After working as a research staff member in the Institute for Defense Analyses from 1979 until 1998, she returned to academia as a research professor and lecturer in chemistry at George Washington University in 1998. She moved to Pennsylvania State University in 2000, becoming a regular-rank associate professor of aerospace engineering; she was promoted to full professor in 2007.[4] She moved to her present position at the University of Illinois in 2014.[1][4]
Research
[edit]Levin’s research focuses on chemically reacting hypersonic flows, space plasmas, and electric propulsion. She has developed high-fidelity DSMC models to simulate phenomena such as shock bi-modality, particulate lifting in blast waves, and heat transfer in hypersonic boundary layers.[6] Her work has supported NASA’s return-to-flight efforts following the Columbia disaster, including modeling atomic oxygen erosion of Shuttle tiles.
Recognition
[edit]Levin was named as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2014.[7] In 2025, Levin received the AIAA Thermophysics Award "for her pioneering work in deriving thermo-physical insights into complex, multiscale high-speed flows using particle kinetic simulation approaches".[6] Her contributions to hypersonics, particularly through the development of heterogeneous computing algorithms for Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), were recognized by NASA Ames Research Center.
Personal life
[edit]Levin married Arne W. Fliflet, a physicist whom she met when she was a graduate student and he was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech; they have four children.[3] When Levin moved to the University of Illinois, Fliflet moved with her, becoming a lecturer in electrical and computer engineering.[8]
References
[edit]- 1 2 Mumm, Susan (September 10, 2014), Levin Brings to AE Expertise in Modeling, Simulation of Chemical Reacting Flows, UIUC Aerospace Engineering, retrieved 2025-02-04
- ↑ Zhang, J.; Goldstein, D.B.; Varghese, P.L.; Gimelshein, N.E.; Gimelshein, S.F.; Levin, D.A. (May 2003), "Simulation of gas dynamics and radiation in volcanic plumes on Io", Icarus, 163 (1): 182–197, Bibcode:2003Icar..163..182Z, doi:10.1016/s0019-1035(03)00050-2
- 1 2 "About Dr. Deborah Levin", Simulation of Chemically Reacting Flows, Pennsylvania State University, retrieved 2025-02-04
- 1 2 3 "Deborah Levin", Faculty directory, UIUC Aerospace Engineering, retrieved 2025-02-04
- ↑ Curriculum Vitae (PDF), Pennsylvania State University, August 2012, retrieved 2025-02-04
- 1 2 "Deborah Levin receives AIAA Thermophysics Award", University of Illinois Aerospace Engineering, August 2025
- ↑ AIAA Fellows (PDF), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, retrieved 2025-02-04
- ↑ "Arne Fliflet", Faculty directory, UIUC Electrical & Computer Engineering, retrieved 2025-02-04
External links
[edit]- Deborah Levin publications indexed by Google Scholar
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
- Living people
- American aerospace engineers
- American women engineers
- Women aerospace engineers
- American fluid dynamicists
- American planetary scientists
- American women planetary scientists
- Stony Brook University alumni
- California Institute of Technology alumni
- George Washington University faculty
- Pennsylvania State University faculty
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
- Fellows of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics