Ronald K. Hanson received his Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University. He has been affiliated with the mechanical engineering department at Stanford since 1972, serving as department chair from 1993-2003 and holding the Woodard Chair from 1994. Dr. Hanson is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Optical Society of America (OSA), and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He is a recipient of the Silver Medal and the Alfred Egerton Gold Medal of the Combustion Institute, the R.I.Soloukhin Award of the Institute for Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems (IDERS), and the AIAA Awards for Propellants and Combustion and for Advanced Measurement Technology. Dr. Hanson’s research interests are in laser diagnostics and sensors, shock wave physics and chemistry, laser spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, combustion science, and advanced propulsion. Hanson is a Principal Investigator at the Combustion Energy Frontier Research Center (CEFRC).
