Rate My Professor Keith Gonthier

Keith Gonthier is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering holding the Nader Sabbaghian Professorship in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. He received a BS degree in biochemistry from Louisiana State University in 1988, a BS degree in aerospace engineering from Auburn University in 1990, and a PhD degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1997. Prior to joining the faculty at LSU in 2001, he served as a postdoctoral research associate in high-explosive physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory and as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Lamar University. Since joining LSU, he has been a visiting scientist with Los Alamos National Laboratory and a faculty fellow, visiting scientist, and senior research associate with the Munitions Directorate of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base.

Professor Gonthier's expertise encompasses the theory, modeling, and computation of gas phase and multiphase detonation, multiscale modeling and simulation of shock waves in heterogeneous solids, and modeling and simulation of explosively and pyrotechnically actuated devices. His research interests include shock physics, detonation, multiphase compressible flow, and computational mechanics, as well as high speed compressible flow and shock and detonation physics. Representative publications include "Classification of Laryngotracheal Stenosis in Children based on Computational Aerodynamics" with W. J. Poynot and M. E. Dunham (Journal of Biomechanics, 2020); "Analysis of Microstructure-Dependent Shock Dissipation and Hot-Spot Formation in Granular Metalized Explosive" with S. N. Chakravarthy (Journal of Applied Physics, 2016); "Compaction Shock Dissipation in Low Density Granular Explosive" with P. T. Rao and S. Chakravarthy (Journal of Applied Physics, 2016); "A Multi-Phase Theory for the Detonation of Granular Explosives Containing an Arbitrary Number of Solid Components" with M. W. Crochet (International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 2015); and "Mesoscale Analysis of Volumetric and Surface Dissipation in Granular Explosive Induced by Uniaxial Deformation Waves" with R. Panchadhar (Shock Waves, 2010). He is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Propulsion and Power.