Welcome New ASE/EM Faculty

From aviation and urban air mobility to remote sensing, propulsion and hypersonics, Texas ASE/EM’s three new faculty members span a wide range of engineering expertise. Learn more about how our newest faculty members are pushing technological boundaries and changing the world. 

John-Paul Clarke

Professor, Ernest Cockrell, Jr. Memorial Chair in Engineering
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

John-Paul Clarke is joining the department in January 2021 as a professor. He will hold the Ernest Cockrell, Jr. Memorial Chair in Engineering. Clarke comes to UT Austin from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was the College of Engineering Dean’s Professor and held appointments in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering and the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He also served as the director of the Air Transportation Laboratory and recently, while on leave from Georgia Tech, held the position of vice president of Strategic Technologies at United Technologies (now merged with Raytheon).

Clarke is world-renowned for his work on aircraft trajectory prediction and optimization, particularly as it relates to improving flight procedures that reduce the environmental impact of aviation. He is also an expert in the development and use of stochastic models and optimization algorithms to improve the efficiency and robustness of airline, airport and air traffic operations. Clarke’s work has influenced air transportation theory, policy and practice both at the national and international level. His current research interests include urban air mobility (UAM) and the development of autonomous aircraft, including air traffic management and control for these systems. He testified before Congress to the House Science Committee in 2018 about the challenges of UAM.

Learn more about John-Paul Clarke

What attracted you to Texas ASE/EM?

What do you enjoy most about your research?

Tell us about your teaching philosophy.

What kinds of things do you enjoy outside of work?

I’m a track and field official and serve on the World Athletics International Technical Officials panel for North America, Central America and the Caribbean. I also sing in a small choir when I am in the Cayman Islands.

Lori Magruder

Associate Professor
Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin

Lori Magruder is joining the department this fall as an associate professor. Magruder is a subject matter expert in remote sensing and 3D geospatial data exploitation for earth science. She has held positions at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory prior to returning to UT Austin as a senior research scientist at the Applied Research Laboratories.

Magruder was selected to be the ICESat-2 Science Definition Team Leader in 2014 to support mission development and early on-orbit satellite operations. She also is the principal investigator for the satellite’s precision pointing determination operational program and geolocation validation studies. In 2020, Magruder was selected by NASA to lead the new ICESat-2 Science Team. In addition to her leadership responsibilities within the mission she will be providing scientific research in bathymetric science discovery and continuing her efforts for data product validation.

Learn more about Lori Magruder

What attracted you to Texas ASE/EM?

What do you enjoy most about your research?

Tell us about your teaching philosophy.

How do you like to spend your free time?

I love cooking and going to the movies. However, most of my time is spent with my husband and three kids watching sports or just enjoying the outdoors.

Thomas Underwood

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. Stanford

Thomas Underwood is joining the department in January 2021 as an assistant professor. Underwood has worked on a broad range of areas, including propulsion, optical diagnostics, hydrodynamic stability, interfacial chemistry, microfluidics, chemical separation and electrochemistry. His current research interests focus on understanding how the chemistry and dynamics of reactive flows can be leveraged to address challenges in energy, transportation, the environment, and security. Specifically, his research aims to understand how reactive transport in fluids and gases can be coupled with interfacial chemistry in the context of hypersonics, space propulsion, catalysis, chemical separation/recovery, and as a platform for unconventional computations.

Underwood received an B.S. degree from the University of Florida in physics and nuclear engineering. He received a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University with Mark A. Cappelli. At Stanford, he studied how instabilities form and can be mitigated in hydromagnetic plasma jets. He received his postdoctoral training in chemistry at Harvard University with George M. Whitesides.

Learn more about Thomas Underwood

What attracted you to Texas ASE/EM?

What do you enjoy most about your research?

Tell us about your teaching philosophy.

How do you like to spend your free time?

Outside of research, I enjoy reading and learning about other disciplines. This helps me to take inspiration from other branches of science and frame my own work in a better way. I also enjoy hiking and exploring nature when I can get away from the city. I am also a big fan of college sports – Hook ‘em, Horns!