Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science

News and Events

July 14, 2011

Dr. Paul Walsh announced as Interim Chair, Department of Aerospace Engineering

Dean Lachemi is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Paul Walsh, as interim chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science for the period August 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011.

Dr. Walsh joined the School of Aerospace Engineering in 1999, which was operating at the time within the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Walsh has taught undergraduate courses in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, low speed aerodynamics, viscous fluids and both aircraft and spacecraft capstone design. At the graduate level, he has taught courses in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and high-speed aerodynamics. His research interests are aerospace applications of computational fluid dynamics, high-speed aerodynamics, and urban wind power systems.

Dr. Walsh received his M.A.Sc. from the University of British Columbia while working in the Alternative Fuels Laboratory on the development of CFD algorithms for internal combustion engines. In 1992, he moved to the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies to work towards his PhD while developing his research on CFD applications to aerodynamic analysis. While there, he was awarded the student paper prize by the CFD Society of Canada for his paper submitted to their 1996 Annual Conference. In 1997, he received the G.N. Patterson Award from the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI) for his work in CFD. In the same year, Dr. Walsh received a Research Fellowship from the National Research Council of the United States for post-doctoral work at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center in California. At NASA, Dr. Walsh conducted CFD algorithm development for applications to high-speed turbulent flows.  

Dr. Walsh’s research work in aerodynamics has continued at Ryerson through funding grants totaling more than $500,000 from programs such as NSERC Discovery, RTI, CRD, and Manufacturing and Materials Ontario. He has collaborated on projects with Boeing Toronto, EXMD Airframes, and Bombardier Aerospace. He has supervised and co-supervised 41 undergraduate theses and 21 graduate students and has authored or co-authored more than 25 publications appearing in scholarly journals and conference proceedings.

Dr. Walsh’s administrative experience and service to his profession is extensive. From 2003 to 2005, he served as the Public Relations Committee Chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering. Between 2004 and 2006, he was the Chair of the Aerospace Curriculum Committee, which saw the creation of the new avionics option within the aerospace program. Since 2008, he has been the Associate Chair of the department. As part of his duties, Dr. Walsh has been chairing the Aerospace Accreditation Committee and has been responsible for implementing the new CEAB graduate attribute assessment process. Since Dr. Walsh started at Ryerson, he has been involved with CASI at the student level, and for the past four years, he has been a board member of CASI’s National Council. 

Dean Lachemi would also like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Kamran Behdinan for the excellent job he has done in the Chair’s role to date, and to wish him all the best in his future endeavours.