Faculty & Staff

Biography

Dr. Hollingsworth is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He joined UAH in 2011 as Chair of the Department and served in that capacity for 12 years. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1989. His B.S. and M.S. degrees are from North Carolina State University. Dr. Hollingsworth's research interests span several areas of thermal science including boiling and two-phase flows, turbulent convection, liquid crystal thermography, and biomedical heat transfer. Dr. Hollingsworth has graduated over 40 research students at the PhD, Masters, and Honors Thesis levels. His research accomplishments have been recognized by election to Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2009, and election to Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2016. Dr. Hollingsworth was inducted into the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Hall of Fame at North Carolina State University in 2016. Prior to joining UAH, Dr. Hollingsworth was on the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Houston where his classroom teaching was recognized with four College teaching awards, the University teaching award, and the University research mentoring award. He has been a registered Professional Engineer in Texas since 1993.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

• Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 1989
• M.S., Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University, 1982
• B.S., Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University, 1980

Honors & Awards

• UAH College of Engineering Outstanding Senior Faculty Member for 2024.
• Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Alumni Hall of Fame, NC State University, 2016
• Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2015

Expertise

• Boiling and Two-phase Flows
• Turbulent Convection
• Liquid Crystal Thermography

Recent Publications

• Vaporization in Liquid-Core Nuclear Thermal Rockets, Santana, D. and Hollingsworth, D. K., Nuclear Science and Engineering,
  DOI:10.1080/00295639.2024.2380633, Aug. 22, 2024).

• Initial Modeling of Three-Phase Fuel/Propellant Annulus Design for Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Rockets, Santana, D. and Hollingsworth, D. K., Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space Conference (NETS-2024), American Nuclear Society, Sante Fe NM, May 6-10, 2024.

• Design and Testing of a Device for Moon Dust Deposition of Test Articles/Systems, Hurlbert, K.M., Hollingsworth, D. K., Kurwitz C., Rios, J., Kanoongo, S., Khater, A. Z.; NASA Thermal and Fluids Analysis Workshop 2023, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, August 21-24, 2023.