Carlos E. S. Cesnik is the Richard A. Ahull Department Chair of Aerospace Engineering, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Endowed Professor, and the founding director of the Active Aeroelasticity and Structures Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan. Prior to his appointment as an associate professor, with tenure, at the University of Michigan in 2001, Professor Cesnik was the Boeing Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also worked as a research engineer at Embraer S.A.
His research has focused on computational and experimental aeroelasticity of very flexible aircraft, aero-thermo-elastic modeling, analysis, and simulation of hypersonic vehicles, aeromechanics of helicopter rotors, active vibration and noise reduction in helicopters, active twist blade analysis and design, and structural health monitoring for damage detection in metallic/composite structures, as well as metamaterials. His work has been recognized with the lifelong AIAA Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Award (2024).
Professor Cesnik is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Vertical Flight Society (VFS), and the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS). He has extensive service to the aerospace profession, including being a member (2018-present) of the Guggenheim Medal Board of Award and being its chair (2022-2024); He was also the director for the Aerospace Design and Structures Group in AIAA’s Technical Activities Division (2017-2021), as well as an elected member of AIAA’s Council of Directors. Professor Cesnik is currently the Technical Director of the VFS and member of its Executive Board. He has over 400 publications in archival journals and conference papers, many best paper awards, a book on the dynamics of flexible aircraft, and several invited lectures. Professor Cesnik has been an active private pilot since 1981.
Head of Center for Computer Applications in Aerospace Science and Engineering at DLR & Professor of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization at TU Braunschweig.
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