Louis Cattafesta, Ph.D. elected Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

lou cattafesta

Lou Cattafesta, Ph.D., was recently named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a mechanical engineering professor at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. (M Wallheiser/FAMU-FSU Engineering)

Louis N. Cattafesta, III, university eminent scholar and professor of mechanical engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). 

Cattafesta is among 28 in the new AIAA Class of 2022 Fellows to be inducted at a ceremony on April 26 in Arlington, Virginia. He was selected for his contributions to research and education in active flow control and aeroacoustics, particularly in actuators, sensors, feedback flow control, and experimental methods.

“It is a privilege and an honor to be selected by my peers to be Fellow of the AIAA,” Cattafesta said. 

After receiving his doctorate from Penn State University, Cattafesta joined the High Technology Corporation as a research scientist at NASA Langley Research Center. His research focused on supersonic laminar flow control and pressure and temperature-sensitive paint measurement techniques. He was awarded the 1996 NASA Team Excellence Award for his contributions. He also became involved in the active control of flow-induced cavity oscillations leading to his current research interests in active flow and aeroacoustics.

Cattafesta spent 13 years on the faculty at the University of Florida before joining the college in 2012. He was the director of the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion from 2017-2020. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Physical Society and the author or co-author of seven U.S. patents and more than 100 archival journal publications. He is currently an associate editor for Experiments in Fluids.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest technical society. The organization brings together industry AIAA brings together industry, academia and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space and defense.