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Aerospace engineer receives WVU Honorary Degree at Potomac State’s Graduation

Portrait of David Doman

David B. Doman, Ph.D.

David B. Doman, Ph.D., a principal aerospace engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory and the director of the Control Science Center in the Aerospace Systems Directorate, was presented with a WVU Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science, during Potomac State College (PSC) of West Virginia University’s (WVU) 2016 Commencement. The ceremony was held Saturday, May 7, at 11 a.m. in the Church-McKee Arts Center. 

A native of Fort Ashby, W.Va., Dr. Doman earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1984. He was licensed as a private pilot and graduated from Frankfort High School in 1987.   In 1989, he graduated from PSC and transferred to WVU, where he graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1991 and received the WVU College of Engineering Rufus A. West Award.  He earned an M.S. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1998. 

During his 24-year career as a civilian with the U.S. Air Force, he has been responsible for several research, development and flight demonstration projects. With a strong preference for remaining actively engaged in the technical aspects of work, he has made research contributions to a wide range of topics in aerospace engineering including: dynamics and control for reusable launch vehicles, hypersonic aircraft, flapping-wing micro air vehicles, pilot modeling, precision airdrop, and aircraft thermal performance. He has been the author or co-author of more than 160 widely cited scholarly publications and has been awarded four U.S. patents with three more pending. 

He has received numerous awards for his research and has been the co-recipient of the top technical awards presented by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Aerospace Systems Directorate and its predecessors.  He was awarded the directorate's Dr. Courtland D. Perkins Award in 2000, the General Benjamin D. Foulois Award in 2003 and 2010, and the S. D. Heron Award in 2012.  In 2008, he was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society Silver Medal for his work on control-oriented modeling of air-breathing hypersonic vehicles.  In 2010, he was inducted into the WVU Academy of Distinguished Alumni of Aerospace Engineering.  In 2011, he received the highest-level award presented by the U.S. Air Force for basic research, the John L. McLucas Award, for contributions to the science of dynamics and control of micro air vehicles. In 2013, he was named an Air Force Research Laboratory Fellow, the highest AFRL honor possible, with only 0.6 percent of the Laboratory's engineers and scientists having been chosen to receive the title.   He is also a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Dr. Doman has actively served his local community, WVU and professional engineering societies at the national and international levels.  He has recently served on the Visiting Committee of the WVU Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, as an associate editor for the Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics, and as the chair of the Guidance, Navigation and Control Technical Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.


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