Professor Meyer conducts research in advanced diagnostics and high-speed aero-thermal flows to help advance propulsion, power, and energy systems. These systems require a detailed understanding of highly dynamic, multi-phase, reacting, high-speed, and non-equilibrium flows over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. Such flows are characterized by widely varying levels of turbulence, chemical reactions, and optically challenging environments, including particulates, droplets, high pressures, and shock-wave interactions. Advanced diagnostics have been developed to resolve a wide range of spatio-temporal scales, interrogate multiple phases, and extract quantitative information about highly coupled state variables within such complex environments. 

To achieve relevant conditions, Prof. Meyer has developed lab-scale test facilities that incorporate high-speed diagnostic techniques and instrumentation within relevant flow conditions. To elucidate the key thermal-fluid transport phenomena, Prof. Meyer collaborates closely with researchers specializing in numerical methods, including computational fluid dynamics, combustion kinetics, plasma physics, and multi-dimensional reconstruction techniques. The information gained is then used to develop novel device architectures that can be transitioned to practical use for improved efficiency, reduced emissions, and compact/robust architectures amenable to rapid development and manufacturing. 

Education

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001

M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997

B.M.E., Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota at Minneapolis-St. Paul, 1993

Professional Background

Professor and Department Head, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, University of Minnesota, 2026 - Present

Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 2015 - 2026

Guest Professor, SAOT Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies, Alexander-Friedrich University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, 2010 - 2020            

Cofounder and Chief Technology Officer, Spectral Energies, LLC, Dayton, OH, 2006 - 2016       

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2012 - 2015           

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 2006 - 2012           

Senior Researcher, Innovative Scientific Solutions, Inc., Dayton, OH, 2000 - 2006           

Visiting Assistant Professor, EM2C, École Centrale Paris, France, 2001 - 2004           

Graduate Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994 - 2000

Mechanical Engineer, Cummins Engine Company, Columbus, IN, 1993 - 1994

Scientific & Professional Societies

Honors and Awards

2025: Fellow of the Combustion Institute

2023: Walter Lempert Best Paper Award, AIAA SciTech Forum

2023: Aerodynamic Measurement Technology Innovation Award, AIAA

2022: Fellow of Optica (formerly Optical Society of America)

2022: School of Mechanical Engineering Spira Award, Purdue University

2022: Editor’s Pick, Applied Physics Letters

2020, 2019: Editor’s Pick, Optics Letters

2019: Editor’s Pick, Applied Optics

2021-2016: List of Outstanding Engineering Teachers in 6 Semesters, Purdue University

2017: Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

2017-2011: Awardee, NSF CAREER Award, Combustion, Fire, and Plasma Systems

2013: Best Student Presentation, 25th Annual Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems ILASS-Americas Conference, OSA

2012-2011: William and Virginia Binger Assistant Professor, Iowa State University

2011: Best Paper, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, Active Optical Sensing, OSA

2010: Young Researcher Award, Erlangen Graduate School in Advanced Optical Technologies

2006: Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

2004: First Place Art Competition, Central States Section of The Combustion Institute

2003: AIAA Dayton-Cincinnati Section Outstanding Technical Contribution Award

2002: Third Place Art-in-Science Award, AIAA Dayton-Cincinnati Section

2001: AIAA Foundation Graduate Award in Fluid Dynamics

2000-1999: Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow

1997-1994: NSF Graduate Fellow

1997-1994: University of Illinois Foundation Graduate Research Fellow

Books

B.R. Halls, T.R. Meyer, S.J. Grauer, and L. Ma, “Tutorial: Tomographic Imaging in Combustion-Related Flows,” Chapter 16 in Optical Diagnostics for Reacting and Non-Reacting Flows: Theory and Practice, Eds. A. Steinberg and S. Roy, AIAA, 1089-1126, 2023; doi.org/10.2514/4.106330.

A. Saha, G. Gunaratne, H. Subramani, T. Yi, T.R. Meyer, and S. Roy, “Analysis of Spatiotemporal Data,” in Optical Diagnostics for Reacting and Non-Reacting Flows: Theory and Practice, Eds. A. Steinberg and S. Roy, AIAA, 1205-1285, 2023; doi.org/10.2514/4.106330.

G. Paniagua, J. Braun, T. Meyer, V. Athmanathan, and S. Roy, “An Oasis of Pure Aerothermal Dilemmas: Integrating Turbines with Rotating Detonation Combustors,” in Progress in Detonation Research, Ed. S.M. Frolov, pp. 70-72, 2020, Torus Press (Moscow), doi.org/10.30826/ICPCD12A27 and in Recent Progress in Detonation for Propulsion, Eds. S.M. Frolov and J. Kasahara, pp. 65-67, Torus Press (Moscow), doi.org/ 10.30826/IWDP201924.

T.R. Meyer, M. Brear, S.H. Jin, and J.R. Gord, “Formation and diagnostics of sprays in combustion,” in Handbook of Combustion, Eds. M. Lackner, F. Winter, and A. Agarwal, Wiley-VCH, pp. 291-322, 2010; doi.org/10.1002/9783527628148.hoc031.

C.E. Bunker, J.R. Gord, T.R. Meyer, M.S. Brown, V.R. Katta, D.A. Zweifel, B.A. Harruff, and Y.-P. Sun, “Micro to Nano–Small Research for Fuels and Combustion,” in Surface Engineering: Science and Technology II, Eds. A. Kumar, Y.-W. Chung, J. Moore, G. Doll, K. Yatsui, and D. Misra, TMS (Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), Materials Processing and Manufacturing Division, pp. 25-35, 2002; doi.org/10.1002/9781118788325.ch3.

Selected Publications

K. Nakata,  T. Kimura,  N. Itouyama, K. Matsuoka, J. Kasahara, A. Kawasaki, H. Watanabe, A. Matsuo, I. Funaki, K. Higashino, V. Athmanathan,  T. Meyer,  and G. Paniagua “Internal Flow Structure in a Rotating Detonation Engine with Non-constant Area Channels,” AIAA J. 64(4), 2053-2064, 2026; doi.org/10.2514/1.J066001.

K. Patel, E.L. Braun, T.R. Meyer, and Mikhail N. Slipchenko, “Custom fs OPA and ps narrowband spectral amplifier for high-resolution kHz-rate rovibrational fs/ps CARS,” Appl. Opt. 65(1), 133-140, 2026; doi.org/10.1364/AO.575622.

J. Wohld, P.J. Salek, A.M. Braun, T.R. Meyer, S. Roy, J.S. Jewell, and M.N. Slipchenko, “Theoretical model and experimental characterization of high-power burst-mode Nd:YAG laser amplification,” Appl. Opt. 64(34), 10672-10677, 2025; doi.org/10.1364/AO.579586.

K. Wan, A.M. Webb, A.J. Saltzman, R.L. Travis, J. Manin, L.M. Pickett, A.A. Egeln Jr., T.G. Voskuilen, M. Arienti, R.W. Houim, T.R. Meyer, and D.R. Guildenbecher, “Megahertz rate optical diagnostics of explosively generated soot," Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics 50(9), 135-143, 2025; https://doi.org/10.1002/prep.70019.

K. Patel, R.N. Blackwell, D.G. Ritchie, A.M. Webb, A.M. Braun, C.C. Chinske, M.N. Slipchenko, T.R. Meyer, and J.S. Jewell, “Broadband tunable 100-kHz-rate two-photon laser-induced fluorescence line measurements of CO in high-speed flows,” Opt. Lett. 50(17), 5434-5437, 2025; doi.org/10.1364/OL.569445.

A.M. Braun, N.S. Rodrigues, P.M. Danehy, A.R. Suppiah, J. Braun, M.N. Slipchenko, and T.R. Meyer, “Frequency-scanning burst-mode filtered Rayleigh scattering for kHz-rate, multi-parameter, gas-phase measurements,” Opt. Lett. 50(3), 912-915, 2025; doi.org/10.1364/OL.553639.

P. Pal, J. Braun, Y. Wang, V. Athmanathan, G. Paniagua, T.R. Meyer “Numerical study of flow and combustion dynamics in a full-scale hydrogen-air rotating detonation combustor-stator integrated system,” J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power 147(3), 031002, 2025; doi.org/10.1115/1.4066365.

R.B. Wang, A.M. Webb, V. Athmanathan, M.N. Slipchenko, S.P. Kearney, H.D. Perkins, S. Roy, C.A. Fugger, and T.R. Meyer, “500-kHz OH PLIF and OH* chemiluminescence imaging of deflagration and rotating detonation in CH4-O2 and H2-air mixtures,” Proc. Combust. Inst. 40(1–4), 105770, 2024; doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2024.105770.

E.L. Braun, K. Patel, V. Athmanathan, T.R. Meyer, S. Roy, and M.N. Slipchenko, “High-energy, low-jitter, narrowband ps probe laser for kHz-rate fs/ps coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering,” Opt. Lett. 49(8), 2161-2164, 2024; doi.org/10.1364/OL.519396.

A.M. Webb, C.Q. Crabtree, V. Athmanathan, T.R. Meyer, S.P. Kearney, M.N. Slipchenko, “High-efficiency narrow-bandwidth KTP optical parametric oscillator for kHz–MHz planar laser induced fluorescence,” Opt. Lett. 49(6), 1473-1476, 2024; doi.org/10.1364/OL.510334.