DIRECTOR
Assistant Professor
Hiroshi Ozawa
Prof. Ozawa has been a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa since 2025. He received his Ph.D in 2010 in Aerospace Engineering at the Nagoya University, under the supervision of Prof. Yoshiaki Nakamura, Fluid dynamics Laboratory, with the thesis title “Aerodynamic Interactions between Two-bodies in Supersonic/Hypersonic Flows”. After his Ph.D thesis, he moved to Göttingen, Germany, where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Spacecraft Department (AS-RFZ) at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) from 2010 to 2013. He had worked as the associate professor after the promotion in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Tokyo Metropolitan University (TMU) until 2021. He continued his research and education in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma as the tenure-track assistant professor until 2024. His research interests are the unsteady Aerothermodynamics relating to hypersonic/supersonic flows and the novel flow diagnostics of the ultra-fast response Temperature-Sensitive-Paints (TSP) for heat flux estimation in hypersonics.
Graduate Students
Kosuke Yoshikawa
Kosuke Yoshikawa was born in Tokyo, Japan. He obtained his bachelor’s degree at Tokyo Metropolitan University (TMU) and his master’s at the University of Oklahoma (OU). His research interests include high-speed flow, boundary layer transition (BLT), and flow visualization.
Nicholas S Khor
Nick is a graduate student in the High-Speed Aerothermodynamics lab. He obtained his Bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and worked for a little while at Boeing in Oklahoma City. His research interests include shock-shock interactions, flow visualization, and wind tunnel testing. His interests include RC aircraft, 3D printing, and traveling.
Ryo Kawai
Ryo Kawai is from Tokyo, Japan. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the National Defense Academy of Japan. His research interests focus on hypersonic flow and flow visualization, using techniques such as schlieren imaging and Temperature-Sensitive Paints.
Tomohiro Inoue
Tomohiro Inoue is from Tokyo, Japan. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering at Tokyo Metropolitan University. His research interests are related to hypersonic flow, flow visualization using schlieren method and Pressure-Sensitive-Paint (PSP).