Deborah A. Levin, Ph.D.
Professor of Aerospace Engineering
233E Hammond Building
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Phone: 814-865-6435 / Fax: 814-865-7092
E-mail: dalevin@psu.edu
Web page: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/d/a/dal16/SOCREF/index.htm
Education
California Institute of Technology, Ph. D., Chemistry, 1979
State University of New York at Stony Brook, B. S., Chemistry, 1974
Honors and Awards
Chair of the AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Technical Committee June 2007 - Present
Chair, 27th International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics, held in California from July 10-15, 2010 January 2008 - Present
Session Chair, Plasma, Physics and Kinetics--Orlando January 2010 - January 2010
Research Interests
Dr. Levin's research combines topics in aerospace engineering and physical chemistry. Her research spans the general categories of modeling space experiments, space environments, microfluidics, micropropulsion, and plasma processes. The direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is the primary gas dynamic technique used in her research to calculate nonequilibrium, transitional flows. In addition, different multi-scale approaches have been developed to extend the applicability to DSMC to near-continuum/continuum flows. Molecular dynamics is utilized to develop accurate physical, fine-grained models particularly for chemical reactions and two-phase cluster flows.