Rate My Professor David Gillespie

Professor David Gillespie is an Associate Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford's Department of Engineering Science. He serves as Deputy Head of Department for New Buildings and as a Fellow of St Catherine's College. Gillespie holds an MA and a DPhil from the University of Oxford, where he completed both his undergraduate studies and graduate research at Jesus College, obtaining his doctorate in 1996. After a short period in the chemical industry following his undergraduate degree, he has held the position of Rolls-Royce Fellow in Engineering Science since 2003. He is based at the Oxford Thermofluids Institute and is a member of the Gas Turbine Aerodynamics research group. Gillespie delivers college tutorials on thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and occasionally mathematics, and lectures in Mechanical Engineering.

His research focuses on gas turbine and jet engine technologies, including seals such as leaf seals, non-contacting fluidic seals, and self-centring seals, with investigations into high-speed, high-temperature tribology of seal materials. He develops tip clearance control mechanisms using robust thermally activated casing diameter control systems for high-temperature turbine environments. Additional interests encompass heat exchangers for intercoolers and recuperators, characterizing heat transfer, losses in primary flow passages, and minimizing installation losses in jet engines. Gillespie studies engine-realistic internal cooling systems, including dendritic cooling, ribbed passages with filleted side walls at varying aspect ratios, effects of volcanic ash ingestion, and experimental and CFD measurements of tip cooling and passage aerodynamic loss in modified shroudless configurations. He advances instrumentation methods using thermochromic liquid crystals and IR camera signals for temperature measurements, as well as miniature multi-hole probes for aerodynamic measurements. Key publications include 'An experimental investigation into particle deposition in double-wall effusion cooling systems,' 'Ice crystal shed prediction in turbomachinery using accretion laser scans and subsurface thermal data' (2025), 'Modelling Particulate Deposition in Gas Turbines Part I: a Non-Spherical Bounce Stick Model,' 'Particle Bounce Stick Behavior in the Rotating Frame of Reference' (2024), and 'Wall heat transfer measurements in a turbomachinery environment subject to ice crystal icing' (2018).