Karen Ashby Flack is an American

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations o ...

specializing in experimental

fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...

. She is a professor of mechanical engineering at the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a United States Service academies, federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as United States Secre ...

Education and career

Flack studied mechanical engineering at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

, graduating in 1986. After working for Rockwell Space Operations Company at the

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

and then earning a master's degree at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1988, she completed her Ph.D. at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1993, and in the same year joined the Naval Academy faculty. She became a full professor there in 2004 and chaired the mechanical engineering department from 2014 to 2018.

Recognition

In 2014, Flack was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

(APS), after a nomination by the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, "for her clarifying work on the structure of three dimensional turbulent boundary layers, and for better characterizing the connections between surface roughness geometry and boundary layer drag".

Personal life

Flack married Navy pilot Jeff Flack in 1988.

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flack, Karen Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American mechanical engineers American women engineers Rice University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Stanford University alumni United States Naval Academy faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society American women academics 21st-century American women