Yiguang Ju named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Yiguang Ju, an expert in combustion and propulsion, has been named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

AIAA Fellows are elected by their peers for their notable and valuable contributions to aerospace engineering and represent the top 0.1% of AIAA members. Ju, the Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, has been recognized for his outstanding contributions to research on near-limit combustion, low temperature combustion, plasma-assisted combustion, micro combustion, and alternative fuels.

Ju’s research has contributed to scientists’ fundamental understanding of how fuels burn and has advanced innovation in alternative fuels and plasma assisted combustion technologies for improving energy efficiency and cutting carbon emissions in power and propulsion systems and low-carbon techniques for chemical manufacturing. He also investigates new nano-scale energy materials needed for energy storage and conversion. 

He is cofounder of four start-up companies, HiTNano Inc., Princeton NuEnergy, Polymer-X Inc., and USPlasma Inc, to developed electrified manufacturing technologies for battery electrode manufacturing and recycling, plastics and waste biomass to chemicals and fuels, and high temperature extreme materials. He is the director of DOE Energy Earthshot Research Center for hydrogen shot at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

Ju joined the Princeton faculty as an assistant professor in 2001 and was named to the Patterson professorship in 2013. He has published more than 290 refereed journal articles and is a fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a fellow of the Combustion Institute, where he serves on the board of directors. He received the 2021 Propellants and Combustion Award from the AIAA and the 2022 Alfred C. Egerton Gold Medal from the Combustion Institute. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering thermophysics from China’s Tsinghua University and a doctoral in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Japan’s Tohoku University.