Jens Rataczak
Graduate Student at the University of Colorado - Boulder
Jens Rataczak graduated from Notre Dame in 2020 with his B.S. in aerospace engineering magna cum laude. While a member of the group, he focused on the stagnation-point heating of blunt cones to quantitatively verify heat-flux measurements made via infrared thermography. He also developed an axisymmetric, fully implicit solver to account for longitudinal heat flux within models. Additional experiences include interning for Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked on satellite communication software, and Boeing/NASA, where he worked with the ISS environments group. Jens is currently a doctoral student at the University of Colorado - Boulder, where he is advised by Dr. Iain Boyd and Dr. Jay McMahon. His research currently focuses on the interplay between hypersonic aerothermodynamics and vehicle guidance, navigation, and control. Whenever he is not cheering on the Irish from afar, Jens can be found hiking, snowboarding, rock climbing, or making a strong cup of coffee.