Position Title
Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Ralph C. Aldredge, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, gravitated toward his field because he had always enjoyed tinkering as a kid.
In 2000, one of his primary research interests — analytical, computational and experimental studies of turbulent flame propagation and combustion instabilities — came to the attention of NASA. He received one of two grants, out of 28 given nationwide, awarded to the UC Davis College of Engineering that year. The four-year grant in the amount of $395,000 allowed him to research flame propagation in low-intensity turbulence under microgravity, and to study combustible fuel ratios in order to determine the best formula for combustion in space. Although NASA's involvement focused on the variables related to combustion in space, his work also had implications for the design of car engines, jet engines and a new technology dubbed pulse-detonation engines.
Over time, his research interests have expanded to include the development of computational models and algorithms for the simulation of reactive-flow dynamics, along with biological-fluid dynamics, biomedical heat transfer and tissue mechanics.
Given his interest in motivating young minds, it's no surprise that he's a mentor in the federally funded McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, which is dedicated to increasing the ranks of under-represented groups in graduate study. Each year, the McNair program mentors help a select number of promising scholars with mentoring and fellowships to improve their chances of being admitted to Ph.D. programs nationwide.
He is also a faculty advisor for the UC Davis chapter of the Black Engineers Association, and is one of the faculty members in the UC Davis Forensic Science Graduate Program.
He is a registered Professional Engineer with the State of California (registration No. M 029244)