Author: Eric A. Silk
Eric A. Silk attained his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (1993) from the University of Notre Dame. After a brief tour of duty in the automotive industry, he returned to academia in 1996 to pursue a Master’s Degree in Thermal/Fluid Sciences at Howard University in Washington, DC. He attained his Master’s of Engineering degree in May of 1998. His thesis topic was entitled, “Numerical modeling of Heat Transfer in a Piston/Cylinder Assembly”. In spring of 1999 he began Doctoral study in Mechanical Engineering (Thermal/Fluid sciences) at the University of Maryland, College Park. He attained his Ph.D. in the Fall of 2006. His dissertation topic was “Investigation of Enhanced Surface Spray Cooling”. During his tenure as a member of the space community, Dr. Silk’s duties have included spacecraft/instrument thermal modeling, thermal control system design and high heat flux research and technology development for space applications. Dr. Silk is a Senior Lecturer in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Maryland, College Park with 22 years of engineering experience in spacecraft/instrument thermal modeling, applied thermodynamics, high heat flux cooling systems and thermal control system design and analysis. He is an Associate Fellow with AIAA, as well as an Associate Editor with AIAA’s Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer. Dr. Silk’s research interests include electronics cooling (e.g., loop heat pipes, mechanical heat pump systems, spray cooling), thermal system design and analysis, energy systems and gas processing systems for space based applications.
