Carlos Cesnik

Dr. Carlos E. S. Cesnik is the Richard A. Auhll Department Chair and the Clarence L. (Kelly) Johnson Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan (U-M). He is the founding director of the Active Aeroelasticity and Structures Research Laboratory and was the director for the Airbus-Michigan Center for Aero-Servo-Elasticity of Very Flexible Aircraft until last year.  Prior to his appointment as an associate professor, with tenure, at the University of Michigan in 2001, Professor Cesnik was the Boeing Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also worked as a research engineer at Embraer S.A.

Professor Cesnik is an expert in multi-fidelity, multi-physics modeling, design, simulation, and experimentation of aeronautical systems.  His research has focused on computational and experimental aeroelasticity of very flexible aircraft in support to sustainable aviation; aero-thermo-elastic modeling, analysis, and simulation of hypersonic vehicles; active vibration and noise reductions in helicopters; and structural health monitoring for damage detection in metallic/composite structures and metamaterials.

Professor Cesnik is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Vertical Flight Society, and the Royal Aeronautical Society.  He was the Director for the Aerospace Design and Structures Group in AIAA’s Technical Activities Division (2017-2021), as well as an elected member of AIAA’s Council of Directors.  He has over 350 publications as archival journal and conference papers, and several invited lectures in the areas of aeroelasticity, smart structures, structural mechanics, and structural health monitoring. Professor Cesnik has been an active private pilot since 1981.