Dr. Edward White
- Professor and Department Head of Mechanical Engineering
- Jonsson School Chair
The chair was established anonymously to support the research and scholarly activities of a faculty member in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and is designated for the head of the mechanical engineering department.
“I am excited to help take the next steps forward in quality and reputation and in what we’re able to deliver to students and our research and community partners. Creating an environment where each individual can do their best work is my goal.”
Dr. Edward White, an aerospace engineer, leads the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
White, who joined The University of Texas at Dallas in 2024, said he was drawn to the University’s “dynamic regional presence” and growing national reputation. As department head, White oversees 44 faculty members and nearly 1,200 students at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels.
As a researcher, White focuses on wind-tunnel experiments on boundary-layer stability, laminar-to-turbulent transitions and a variety of areas in applied aerodynamics aimed at reducing the amount of drag on an aircraft configuration. His research has been funded by grants from the U.S. Air Force, NASA, the National Science Foundation and Sandia National Laboratories.
White has served in multiple roles for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and has been cited more than 2,500 times in the fields of aerodynamics, aerodynamic design and experimentation. He was named an AIAA Associate Fellow and served on the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee.
Before joining UT Dallas, White taught for 17 years at Texas A&M University, where he served as associate department head of aerospace engineering and director of the Oran W. Nicks Low Speed Wind Tunnel and the Klebanoff-Saric Wind Tunnel. Before moving to Texas A&M, White taught for seven years at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), where he designed two wind tunnels to study boundary-layer transition and aircraft icing drop runback.
White earned a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from CWRU. He completed his PhD in aerospace engineering in 2000 at Arizona State University.