Dr. Ratneshwar (Ratan) Jha is Department Head & Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University. Dr. Jha is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is an editorial board member for the International Journal of Aerospace Engineering. Over the course of his career, he has received research grants and contracts from Army, NASA, NSF, FAA, AFOSR, the Boeing Company, and many others. Dr. Jha has supervised 30 MS/PhD students and published over 140 articles in archival journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Jha served as professor & graduate program coordinator of aerospace engineering at Mississippi State University (MSU). He also served as the Director of the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory/Advanced Composites Institute at MSU. Earlier, he served as an assistant/associate professor of mechanical & aeronautical engineering at Clarkson University. Dr. Jha worked at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore for 12 years on the design & development of India’s Light Combat Aircraft (Tejas). He earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University, MS in aerospace engineering from Georgia Tech, and BTech in aeronautical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.