Craig Merrett Receives Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor at Clarkson University
Clarkson University President Marc P. Christensen, Ph.D., P.E. has announced that Craig Merrett has been granted tenure and promoted from assistant professor to associate professor of mechanical & aerospace engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering.
Merrett received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in aerospace engineering with high distinction from Carleton University and his Master of Science and Ph.D., both in aerospace engineering, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
His research interests include aero-servo-thermo-viscoelasticity, viscoelasticity, unsteady aerodynamics, applied mechanics, and engineering education. His teaching interests are in aircraft design, applied mechanics, viscoelasticity, and aeroelasticity. He has taught courses focused on sustainable energy, mechanical systems design, materials science, aerospace structures, aeroelasticity, and aircraft accidents.
Dr. Merrett has a diverse research portfolio within the field of aero-servo-thermo-viscoelasticity that includes research on aircraft instability, flight data recorders, failure of composites, viscoelastic material characterization techniques, and viscoelastic effects at high temperatures. The core of the research portfolio is the effects of a viscoelastic material on structural dynamics, in particular the critical time necessary for an instability to occur. Dr. Merrett’s current research program investigates polymer composite materials and metals exposed to elevated temperatures that appear in aerospace engineering applications. Dr. Merrett also conducts research in unsteady aerodynamics for subsonic and supersonic panel flutter.
He recently received a $1.43M equipment grant from the Office of Naval Research. The grant enabled the acquisition of advanced material testing equipment for polymers, composites, and metals. This grant builds on past funding success in the area of viscoelastic materials for aerospace structures, achieved through the Center for Advanced Material Processing and New York-based companies.
Since joining Clarkson University in 2016, Dr. Merrett has brought a project-based learning approach to the aerospace structures courses. This approach evolved in 2020 to collaborate with over 15 aviation museums across the United States and Canada. The museums provide opportunities for Clarkson’s aerospace engineering students to apply techniques and analyses to real, historical aircraft and spacecraft. The collaboration has been fruitful, and more aviation museums join each year.
Dr. Merrett has received numerous awards including the Nepris Top Volunteer for 2019, 2020, and 2021; the Partners in Research - Virtual Researcher on Call, Expert Participation Award and the Carleton Student Engineering Society “Best Professor” Award in 2014. At the University of Illinois, Merrett received the Roger A. Strehlow Memorial Award for Outstanding Research Accomplishment; AIAA Lockheed Martin Student Paper Award in Structures; Mavis Future Faculty Fellowship; and the Postgraduate Scholarship - Doctoral, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
He is a Professional Engineer in Ontario, and a senior member of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. At the Institute he is a member of the Structures Technical Committee, and the current chair of the STEM K-12 Outreach Committee. He is also a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, and American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
