Rate My Professor Gaetano Currao

Dr. Gaetano Currao serves as an Adjunct Associate Lecturer in the UNSW Canberra School of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of New South Wales. He completed his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from UNSW in 2018, with a thesis titled "Experimental Study of Hypersonic Fluid Structure Interaction with Shock Impingement on a Cantilevered Plate," supervised by Professor Andrew Neely. Prior to his doctorate, Currao obtained his M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Sapienza University of Rome in 2013 and his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the same institution between 2010 and 2013.

Following his Ph.D., Currao held the position of Research Fellow and Lecturer at UNSW Canberra School of Engineering and IT from 2018 to 2020. His research specialized in hypersonic aerodynamics, focusing on fluid-structure interactions, shock impingement on flexible structures, oscillating shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions, and aeroelastic responses in high-speed flows. He developed the initial version of the HyMAX experimental model, which was selected as a benchmark test case for the NASA Aeroelastic Prediction Workshop 3. Currao has authored or co-authored numerous publications in leading journals, including "Hypersonic fluid–structure interaction on a cantilevered plate with shock impingement" (AIAA Journal, 2019), "Hypersonic Transitional Shock-Wave–Boundary-Layer Interaction on a Flat Plate" (AIAA Journal, 2020), "Hypersonic oscillating shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction on a flat plate" (AIAA Journal, 2021), "Double peak-heating in hypersonic transitional shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions" (AIAA Journal, 2022), and "Experimental Study of Aeroelastic Response and Performance of a Hypersonic Intake Ramp" (Journal of Propulsion and Power, 2022). He contributed to the team that received the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Best Paper Award for "Oscillating Shock Impingement on a Flat Plate at Mach 6" at the AIAA Aviation 2019 Forum. His accolades include Best Fluid-Dynamic Paper at the AIAA Aviation Forum Conference (2019), Best Research Poster at the FSI Workshop at UNSW Canberra (2018), Best Presentation at the AFOSR High Speed Aerodynamics Portfolio Annual Review at NASA Langley (2017), and Best Student Paper Finalist in Structures and Materials at the 7th EUCASS (2017).