Marco Panesi

Marco Panesi is a Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Director of the Center for Hypersonics and Entry Systems Studies (CHESS). His research focuses on non-equilibrium phenomena in high-enthalpy flows, plasma dynamics, and uncertainty quantification. He holds a Ph.D. from the von Kármán Institute for Fluid Dynamics (2009) and M.S. degrees from Università di Pisa (2003) and VKI (2005).

• Roles: Faculty Member, Research Director, Principal Investigator
• Key Affiliations: CHESS, University of Illinois, VKI

Research Interests: Hypersonic flow modeling, non-equilibrium plasmas, radiation effects, machine learning applications in aerothermodynamics, ablation processes, and state-to-state chemistry. His work bridges computational fluid dynamics with experimental validation in facilities like the Plasmatron X wind tunnel.

Publications: Over 100 peer-reviewed articles on topics ranging from plasma kinetics to thermal protection systems. Recent work emphasizes adaptive neural operator models and Bayesian uncertainty quantification.

Awards: Includes the Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship (2021), NASA Groundbreaker Award (2021), and multiple early-career recognitions from AFOSR, NASA, and ESA.

Grants & Leadership: Secured funding from NSF, NASA, and DOD. Leads multidisciplinary teams on projects like the CHyPS material response solver and hypersonic entry modeling.

Labs & Facilities: Principal investigator for the UIUC Plasmatron X facility, a key resource for studying high-enthalpy plasma flows.