Rate My Professor John Blandino

John J. Blandino is a Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He earned his BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1987, MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1989, and PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 2001. Prior to joining the WPI faculty in 2001, Blandino served as a Senior Staff Engineer in the Advanced Propulsion Technology Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research there included the application of plasma sources for materials processing and the development of pulsed plasma and small-scale hydrazine thrusters. He worked as the propulsion engineer for the Deep Space 3 Interferometer and Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) missions. Blandino supported NASA's Space Technology 7 (ST-7) mission as a member of the NASA Technology Review Board from 2002 to 2003 and chaired the Critical Design Review Board for NASA's colloid micronewton thruster development activity from 2004 to 2007.

Blandino's research interests encompass the investigation of hollow cathode plasma properties and processes, plasma diagnostics of novel ion sources, dielectrophoretic effects in fluids, and electric propulsion for drag-free flight in ultra-low Earth orbit. He conducts research in electric propulsion for spacecraft and performs analysis of missions enabled by this technology, as well as investigations of electrical discharges used to produce plasmas for various applications and heat transfer related to aerospace systems. An active member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), he serves as Associate Editor for the AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vice Chair of the Executive Council for the New England Section of AIAA, and a member of the AIAA Electric Propulsion Technical Committee. Key publications include "Thermal Analysis of a Lithium Vaporizer for a High-Power Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster" (2006), "Electric Propulsion and Controller Design for Drag-Free Spacecraft Operation in Low Earth Orbit" (2008), "Effect of Electron Bombardment on Size Distribution of Negatively Charged Droplets Produced by Electrospray" (2013), and "Feasibility for Orbital Life Extension of a CubeSat Flying in the Lower Thermosphere" (2016).