Jaime Peraire

Jaime Peraire is the H.N. Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, affiliated with the School of Engineering. He leads research in computational mechanics, aerodynamics, and numerical methods for partial differential equations, with key roles as former Department Head (2011-2018) and Director of the Aerospace Computational Design Lab (1993-2011). His expertise spans finite element methods, shock capturing algorithms, and high-order numerical techniques applied to hypersonic flows, space weather, and metamaterials.

Education includes a Ph.D. from the University of Wales (1986) and engineering degrees from the University of Barcelona (1983, 1987). He holds prestigious awards like the T.J. Hughes Medal (2015) and the Ildefons Cerdá Medal (2015). His work bridges computational science and engineering, with contributions to discontinuous Galerkin methods, mesh adaptivity, and GPU-accelerated simulations.

Research interests emphasize high-fidelity modeling of compressible flows, plasma dynamics, and terahertz spectroscopy. Notable projects include MIT’s space weather modeling initiative and metamaterial fabrication using atomic layer lithography. His labs collaborate across MIT’s Schwarzman College of Computing, IDSS, and CCSE to advance computational tools for aerospace and environmental systems.

• Awards: Over 10 major prizes, including NASA Exceptional Achievement (1997) and IACM Young Researchers Award (1998).
• Grants/Advising: Led NSF-funded space weather projects and advised numerous PhD students in computational engineering.
• Labs: Aerospace Computational Design Lab, MIT Schwarzman College of Computing collaborations.