People
Faculty
Dr. Shyam Menon
Dr. Menon is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial
Engineering at Louisiana State University. He received his B.E in Mechanical Engineering
at VJTI, Mumbai, and M.S and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace engineering from the University
of Maryland at College Park. He has since conducted postdoctoral research at the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Southern California, and at Oregon
State University. His research interests are primarily associated with multiphase
flows with application to power generation and propulsion. He is the lead PI of the
Energy and Propulsion Laboratory at LSU. (CV)
Graduate Students
Naga Varuna Chaitanya Guntapalli
Naga is a graduate student pursuing a Doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has done his Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering at Gitam University and his Master of Technology in Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics at Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. He has worked as a Calibration Engineer at Veoneer Safety Systems Pvt Ltd. His research focuses on developing combustion relevant functional relationships for Sustainable aviation fuels.
Joshua Moore
Joshua is a graduate student pursuing a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. His research focuses on pneumatic conveying of wood particles and the determination of terminal, pickup and saltation velocities under differing ambient conditions.
Mohamed Khamis
Mohamed Khamis is a doctoral student pursuing a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt. He has worked as a Rotating Equipment and Turbomachinery Engineer at Alexandria Mineral Oil Company. His research focuses on studying droplet evaporation under supercritical conditions and visualizing the process using advanced techniques such as Schlieren imaging and laser-induced fluorescence.
James Yu
James completed his BS in Mechanical Engineering from LSU in 2025. He has been working in the EPL since Fall 2026 pursuing a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. His research focuses on shock wave interaction with solid particles and resulting energy and momentum transfer.
Undergraduate Researchers
Stephan Carroll (Paraffin wax multiphase combustion)
Marc St. Martin (Ammonia swirl combustion)
Christian Tran (Hybrid rocket thrust stand)
Alex Price (Hybrid rocket thrust stand)
Calvi (Yui) Hatsuyuki (Hybrid rocket thrust stand)
Addison Holcomb (Rocket exhaust plume assisted construction)
Katsumasa Kawahara (Rocket exhaust plume assisted construction)
Reese Ledet (Turbine blade erosion)
Neel Verma (Shock induced droplet breakup)
Previous Lab Members
Graduate Students
Hansen Jones (M.S, 2018)
Hansen earned his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from LSU and spent time working for Firefly Space Systems at their engineering offices outside Austin, TX before choosing to return to LSU to pursue his M.S. degree. Hansen’s research focused on water jet interactions with supersonic gas jets and characterization of resulting sprays using non-intrusive diagnostic techniques. Hansen is currently a liquid rocket propulsion test engineer at SpaceX.
Darren Dehesa (M.S, 2020)
Darren received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from LSU in addition to a minor in Aerospace Engineering. His research focused on development and use of simulation models for dynamic powertrain performance of small unmanned aircraft systems using MATLAB/Simulink. He is currently a Manufacturing Engineering with Boeing working at NASA Michoud.
Wanjun Dang (PhD, 2021)
Wanjun received her Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Wuhan University of Technology. She served for three years as an automobile engineer at Ford Motor Company. Her PhD research involved the use of droplet based techniques to measure fuel physical properties using micro-liter quantities with application to bio-fuel characterization for IC engines through the DOE Co-Optima project. Wanjun is currently a post-doctoral researcher at DOE's NREL laboratory.
Varun Viswamithra (PhD, 2023)
Varun completed his Master of Science degree from University of Texas at Arlington
with research in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). He has worked as
an Application Engineer intern at Exa Corporation (Dassault Systems). His research
focuses on use of Ammonia as a carbon-free fuel with application to swirl combustors
in gas turbine engines for stationary power generation. Varun is currently a post-doctoral
researcher at the University of California, Irvine.
Connor Becnel (MS 2022)
Connor Becnel received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from LSU and an MS degree
through the Accelerated MS program. He worked on a tunable diode laser absorption
spectroscopy system to acquire temperature readings of high temperature sources. His
research focused on use of the TDLAS system to characterize combustion processes in
hybrid rocket engines using a model combustor setup. Connor is currrently an engineer
at Bascom-Hunter.
Mohana Gurunadhan (PhD 2024, Dr. Menon was a minor advisor)
Mohana completed his Doctoral Degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on numerical
simulations of hybrid rocket combustion. He received his Master's degree in Mechanical
Engineering from LSU and his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Anna University.
He is currently employed by Ansys-Fluent.
James Leung (PhD 2025)
James received his Master’s degree from Michigan State University. He completed his PhD in Engineering Sciences from LSU working in the EPL on shock-induced aerobreakup of liquid droplets. He is currently employed at General Dynamics Electric Boats.
Undergraduate Researchers
Eddie Veal (BS 2019, ME; Project Manager / Rotating Engineering Assurance Team Lead at Shell)
Vaibhav Rajora (BS 2019, Physics; PhD Student in Aerospace Engineering at Purdue)
Wei Zhao (BS 2019, ME; Maintenance engineer at Syngenta)
Sabrina Huezo (Physics)
James Szeszycki (BS 2019, ME; Specialist Sr., Planned Maintenance Systems at Carnival Cruise Line)
Laura Broadbridge (BS 2023, ME)
Dillon Ellender (BS 2020, ME; PhD student in Aerospace Engineering at UT-Austin)
Chris Jeansonne
Joshua Vrettos (BS 2019, ME; Dredging Field Engineer at Weeks Marine, Inc)
Amer Algalban (BS 2023, ME)
Matthew Monju
Jasmine Li (Physics)
Caitlynn Sengchiam (ME)
Luke Russell
Ian Archangel
Arman Davis
Wesley Hutcherson
Russell Gaerlen
Thomas Roussel
Hunter Allen
Christopher Cuntz
Joshua Kruger
Current Openings
For prospective graduate students who are interested in working in the Energy & Propulsion Lab, please refer to my research interests and publications to find out about the specific research topics and email me with a copy of your resume/CV. For current graduate students at LSU who are interested in working in the Energy & Propulsion Lab, please come talk to me directly in my office at 3290 A PFTH.