Carmen Guerra-Garcia

Specialization and Research Interests

My current efforts span from aircraft safety issues (interaction of lightning with aircraft, novel methods for protection and mitigation against lightning strike damage), to plasma technologies for ignition and combustion, and combine multi-physics modeling, computation, and experimentation.

Teaching Interests

Ionized gases, Aerospace Propulsion, Space Propulsion

Academic Degrees

Ingeniero Aeronautico, 2007, Madrid Polytechnic University; S.M. Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2011, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D. Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2014, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Positions Held at MIT

Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Boeing Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2018-2020; Postdoctoral Associate, 2015-2016

Positions Held outside MIT

Research Engineer, Boeing Research & Technology – Europe, 2016-2017; Exchange scholar, Princeton University, Nov 2013 – Jan 2014; Mission Analysis Engineer, Deimos Space, 2007-2009

Biography

Carmen Guerra-Garcia is the Charles Stark Draper Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she leads the Aerospace Plasma Group focused on the intersection of aerospace engineering, low temperature plasma technologies, and gas discharge physics. She majored in Aeronautical Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (Spain) and obtained her SM and PhD degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. Prior to joining the MIT faculty, Guerra-Garcia worked as a research engineer in Boeing Research and Technology Europe and was a visiting researcher at Princeton University. Guerra-Garcia is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award (2024), an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (2021) and an International Fulbright Science and Technology Award (2009), amongst others, and her teaching and mentoring have been recognized by the Junior Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching (2024) and the Earll M. Murman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising (2021). She is a member of the APS Gaseous Electronics Conference Executive Committee and the AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Technical Committee. Guerra-Garcia’s current research spans from safety issues (interaction of lightning with aircraft and wind turbines) to plasma technologies for ignition, combustion, and chemical conversion, and combine multi-physics modeling, computation, and experimentation.