Manuel D. Salas

Manuel “Manny” D. Salas retired from NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in December 2008. He has degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, now New York University Tandon School of Engineering. While at the Polytechnic Manny studied physics and mathematics under Gino Moretti [1] and philosophy under Leonard Peikoff [2]. From 1972 to 1974, he worked at Grumman Aerospace on projects related to the F14 and NASA's Space Shuttle. He began his career at NASA in 1974. At NASA, he held several technical management positions including Head of the Theoretical Aerodynamics Branch, Chief Scientist for Fluid Mechanics, Director of High Performance Computing, and Principal Investigator for the Hypersonic Aerodynamic, Aerothermodynamics & Plasmadynamics Program. He was also Director of the Institute for Computer Applications in Science and Engineering (ICASE) from 1996 to 2002. In 1991, he was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his contributions to computational fluid dynamics. He is the author of over 90 technical publications, including the book A Shock Fitting Primer, published in 2009. He is also editor of 7 other technical books. He lives with his wife Andrea in Lynchburg, Virginia.

[1]https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gino_Moretti [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Peikoff