MEMS Professor Peyman Givi Receives 2024 AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Research

December 5, 2023 – Reston, Va. – The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is pleased to announce the 2024 AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Research is awarded to Peyman Givi, Distinguished Professor and James T. Macleod Chair of Engineering, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Givi will deliver his lecture, “The Promise of Quantum Computing for Aerospace Science and Engineering,” Monday, 8 January, 1730 hrs ET, during the 2024 AIAA SciTech Forum, Orlando, Florida.

Forum registration is available now. Journalists can request a Press Pass here. In addition, the lecture will be available to view by livestream at aiaa.org/scitech.

The Dryden Lectureship in Research is one of the most prestigious lectureships bestowed by the Institute. Since the inaugural lecture in 1961, it has been a catalyst for sharing research advancements and knowledge. This premier lecture is named in honor of Dr. Hugh L. Dryden, a renowned aerospace leader and a director of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA, as well as the first deputy administrator of NASA when the agency was created in 1958. The award emphasizes the importance of basic research in advancing aeronautics and astronautics.

Peyman Givi is the Distinguished Professor and James T. Macleod Chair of Engineering, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1984, and B.E. from Youngstown State University in Ohio in 1980. Previously, he was the University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering from 1988 to 2002. Givi also has worked as a Research Scientist at Flow Industries, Inc., in Seattle, Washington. He has had frequent visiting appointments at the NASA Langley and Glenn Research Centers.

Givi is among the first 15 engineering faculty nationwide who received the White House Faculty Fellowship from President George H.W. Bush. He also received NASA Public Service Medal, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award. In addition to being an AIAA Fellow, Givi is Fellow of AAAS, AAM, APS, ASME, the Combustion Institute, and was named ASME Engineer of the Year in Pittsburgh in 2007. He is currently on the Editorial Boards of the AIAA Journal, Combustion Theory and Modelling, Computers & Fluids, and Journal of Applied Fluid Mechanics. 

Givi’s lecture will address the “second quantum revolution” — we are now at a stage that we can use “quantum science” to invent “quantum technologies.” An example of this technology is Quantum Computing (QC), which has been experiencing significant growth over the last decade, both in hardware and software. Used in appropriate ways, quantum mechanics can provide powerful resources for solving certain classes of problems, achieving cost scalings with the size of the problem that are not available to existing “classical” computers — this is known as the “quantum advantage.”

QC is starting to make an impact in practical aerospace engineering and science applications. The major contributions have been based on "quantum-ready" and "quantum inspired" algorithms. The former deals with algorithms that are shown to provide quantum advantage, and can be used when error-corrected digital, (unitary) gate, universal quantum computers are routinely available and utilized. The latter refers to computational methodologies that are classical but are inspired by quantum physics. Both methodologies are shown to capture some of the intricate structures of classical problems of interest to the aerospace community. This demonstration of quantum advantage will certainly play a significant role in enhancing the ecosystem of QC similar to that currently established in the silicon-based classical computer technology. 

For more information about the AIAA Honors and Awards program, contact Patricia A. Carr at patriciac@aiaa.org.

Media Contact: Rebecca B. Gray, APR, RebeccaG@aiaa.org, 804.397.5270 (cell)

About AIAA
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is the world’s largest aerospace technical society. With nearly 30,000 individual members from 91 countries, and 100 corporate members, AIAA brings together industry, academia, and government to advance engineering and science in aviation, space, and defense. For more information, visit www.aiaa.org, and follow AIAA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.