Farhan Gandhi named Distinguished Professor at NC State University

Indian American professor Farhan Gandhi, renowned for his research contributions to eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft technologies, has been named a Distinguished Professor at NC State University.

The newly established Hassan A. Hassan distinguished professorship in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has been named after the late titan of the MAE department and legend in the field of aerospace engineering.

Hassan helped to establish the professorship shortly before his passing in 2019 alongside his son Basil Hassan and MAE Department Head Srinath Ekkad, according to a press release.

In 1962, Hassan joined North Carolina State University as a full professor and spent 53 years at NC State before beginning his phased retirement in 2015. While at NC State, he was the major adviser to 34 doctoral students, he authored more than 200 publications, and has been recognized with numerous research awards.

READ: Ronak Jani joins University of California Merced advisory board (February 2, 2024)

Hassan died at the age of 87 in 2019, but through his massive contributions to the field of Aerospace Engineering, and through his establishment of both the Dr. Hassan A. Hassan Distinguished Professorship, the Hassan A. Hassan Distinguished Lecture Series, and many more lasting contributions to the department, his legacy lives on.

Gandhi now plays an important role in carrying out that legacy in the MAE Department and at NC State University as a whole, the release stated.

According to Basil Hassan and Dr. Ekkad, the committee’s requirements for filling the professorship were as steep as Profesor Hassan’s mounting list of contributions to this institution – one such requirement being that the candidate had to be an AIAA Fellow – which with the addition of Gandhi, makes three faculty members who hold that position at MAE, including Ekkad and Angel Family Professor Jack Edwards.

READ: Caltech honors two Indian Americans with named professorships (July 5, 2023)

Gandhi obtained his BTech in Aeronautical Engineering from IIT-Bombay in 1989, and his doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Maryland’s Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center in 1995.

After 17 years on the Penn State Aerospace Faculty, he moved to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2012 as the Redfern Endowed Chair Professor in Aerospace Engineering.

With an academic career of more than 29 years, Gandhi has published around 360 technical papers in journals and major conference proceedings and has advised 29 PhD students to graduation. He currently leads a vibrant research group comprising of two research scientists and eight doctoral students.

On 12 occasions, Gandhi has been a plenary/keynote speaker at major technical conferences and has delivered prestigious named lectures such as the 2022 Royal Aeronautical Society’s Cierva Lecture in vertical lift, and the 2019 AIAA Adaptive Structures Lecture, among others.

READ: Cornell awards Indian American Saurabh Mehta endowed professorship (September 1, 2021)

In the area of multi-rotor eVTOL aircraft technologies, Gandhi’s group has conducted cutting-edge research in the areas of multi-rotor/rotor-wing interactional aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, flight controls and eVTOL aircraft flying qualities, fault identification and fault tolerance, vibration reduction, eVTOL aircraft configuration design and analysis, and eVTOL aircraft flight testing, the release stated.