Dr. Ponnampalam Balakumar visited Engineering faculty on 26th October 2015. He is presently working as a research scientist at the NASA Langley Laboratory. Prior to joining NASA, he was a professor at the Old Dominion University, VA. He received his BSc.Eng. (Civil) from University of Peradeniya, M.S. (Mechanical) from University of Missouri and Ph.D. (Aeronautics & Astronautics) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).