NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dr. Robert M. Hall is an aerospace engineer with 38 years of experience in experimental aerodynamic research and technical team leadership of many aspects of applied aerodynamics including computational fluid dynamics, database development and uncertainty analysis.  He spent his NASA career working at the Langley Research Center in areas of research covering areas as broad as establishing minimum operation temperatures of transonic cryogenic tunnels, impacts of forebody shapes and vortical flows on stability during subsonic and transonic flight, and the impacts of flow unsteadiness in the transonic flow regime on both high performance aircraft and launch vehicles.  Over the last 14 years, Dr. Hall led a number of critical aerodynamics teams addressing F/A-18E/F wing drop, developing predictive tools of wing drop for future aircraft, and returning the Delta II Heavy launch vehicle to flight status after an unsteady flow phenomena was seen in flight.  He also served as Aero Panel Chairman of the NASA Ares launch program and had oversight and vetting authority for all aerodynamic work supporting the Ares I, the Ares I-X and Ares V launch vehicles.

Dr. Hall, who retired from NASA in late 2010, now works for Analytical Mechanics Associates in Hampton, Virginia.  He has received a number of honors that include an NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal and the 2005 AIAA Aerodynamics Award.  He attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his B. S. in engineering-physics (1970) and M.S. (1971) and Ph.D. (1974) in mechanical engineering with a specialty in fluid mechanics.