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Houston G. Wood, III
Professor
Telephone: (434) 924-6297
Office: MEC329
E-mail: hwood@virginia.edu
Houston Wood joined the U.Va. faculty in 1981 and is presently Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He earned his B.A. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from Mississippi State University, and his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of Virginia. After his M.S. degree, he worked as a development engineer (1967-1973) at Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant (ORGDP) in the area of uranium enrichment. He moved to U.Va. where he was a research engineer (1973-1977) working on the U.S. Department of Energy gas centrifuge project while completing his doctoral work. He returned to ORGDP where he was manager of the centrifuge physics department (1977-1981) until he joined the U.Va. faculty in 1981.
His research interests involve many areas of fluid dynamics, centrifugation, separation theory, and computational mathematics. Over the last 15 years, he has been active in teaching, lecturing and consulting on issues relating to nuclear non-proliferation. He has also continued research on gas centrifuges and enrichment cascades. Over the last 10 years, his research has focused on the design of rotary blood pumps with magnetically suspended impellers. These pumps are designed to serve as ventricular assist devices and to be implanted in patients with congestive heart failure.
His areas of expertise include centrifugation, nuclear non-proliferation and heart pumps. He has published more than 100 articles in books, journals, conference proceedings and reports. .
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