Rate My Professor Ratneshwar Jha

Ratneshwar (Ratan) Jha is Professor of Aerospace Engineering in the Department of Aerospace, Physics, and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology. He earned a B. Tech. (Honors) in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 1981, an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University in 1999. Prior to his academic career, Jha spent 12 years in the aerospace industry at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore, India, progressing from Aeronautical Engineer (1983-1987) to Deputy Manager (1987-1990) and Manager (Design), Aerodynamics Group, Aircraft Design Bureau (1990-1995). There, he led a team of engineers contributing to the design of the HAL Tejas combat aircraft, now in series production.

Jha's academic career includes positions at Clarkson University as Assistant Professor (1999-2004) and Associate Professor (2005-2012) in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering; at Mississippi State University as Associate Professor (2012-2015) and Professor (2015-2018) in Aerospace Engineering, and Director of the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory/Advanced Composites Institute (2012-2016); Graduate Program Coordinator at Mississippi State University (2017-2018); Department Head and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University (2018-2023); and at Florida Institute of Technology as Department Head and L3Harris Chair Professor (2023-2025) and Professor of Aerospace Engineering (2025-present). His research interests encompass aircraft design, composites modeling, and structural health monitoring. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2014), Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2005), Academic Editor for the International Journal of Aerospace Engineering, member of the AIAA Adaptive Structures Technical Committee (2002-present), and ABET Program Evaluator. Key publications include 'Dynamic Compression Response of Porous Zirconium-Based Bulk Metallic Glass Honeycomb: A Numerical Study' (2020), 'Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms in Structural Health Monitoring' (2016), 'In Situ Structural Health Monitoring Systems for Aerospace Structures: Recent Developments' (2016), 'Molecular weight controls interactions between plastic deformation and fracture in cold spray of glassy polymers' (ACS Omega, 2023), and 'Analyzing the Effects of Particle Diameter in Cold Spraying of Thermoplastic Polymer' (Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, 2021).