Professor Ramesh K. Agarwal is the William Palm Professor of Engineering in the department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Washington University in St. Louis. From 1994 to 2001, he was the Sam Bloomfield Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University in Kansas. From 1978 to 1994, he was the Program Director and McDonnell Douglas Fellow at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories in St. Louis. Dr. Agarwal received a PhD in Aeronautical Sciences from Stanford University in 1975, M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1969 and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, in 1968. Over a period of 45+ years, he has worked in several disciplines within mechanical and aerospace engineering, energy and environment, which include computational fluid dynamics, multidisciplinary design and optimization, turbomachinery and pumps, chemical looping combustion, carbon capture and sequestration, and wind energy. He is the author and coauthor of 600+ publications. He has given many keynotes and invited lectures at various conferences in over sixty countries. He is a Fellow of 32 professional societies including AIAA, ASME, IEEE, SAE, AAAS, APS, and ASEE. He has received many honors and awards including the AIAA Reeds Aeronautics Award, SAE Medal of Honor and Honorary Fellowships from ASME and the Royal Aeronautical Society.