Award-Winning NASA Administrator and Scientist Joins Washkewicz College of Engineering
 
Dr. Woodrow Whitlow, Jr., who held a variety of key leadership and scientific research positions within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration over the past 34 years, has been appointed executive in residence at Cleveland State University’s Washkewicz College of Engineering.
 
In addition to the management of complex organizations, Dr. Whitlow’s areas of expertise include unsteady aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics and aeroelasticity. His position at CSU was effective December 16, 2013.
 
Dr. Whitlow is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and he is one of only three U.S. citizens who have been awarded the honorary doctorate of engineering by Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. He has written more than 40 technical papers, primarily on unsteady transonic flow and aeroelasticity. Dr. Whitlow earned his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 
“On behalf of the entire Cleveland State University community, I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Whitlow to CSU,” said CSU President Ronald Berkman. “This widely respected administrator and outstanding scientist will enrich CSU’s Washkewicz College of Engineering with a keen wisdom earned over the course of more than three decades with NASA. By sharing unique insights from his distinguished career, Dr. Whitlow will embody CSU’s commitment to Engaged Learning.”
 
Dr. Whitlow retired from NASA in August 2013. Most recently, he was associate administrator for mission support at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he was credited with streamlining NASA missions by realigning the agency’s workforce and infrastructure.
 
From December 2005 to April 2010, Dr. Whitlow was director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Under his leadership, the center increased its statewide annual economic impact to $1.2 billion while conducting integral aeronautics and spaceflight research. He served as the center’s director of research and technology from September 1998 to September 2003.
 
As deputy director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida from September 2003 to December 2005, Dr. Whitlow coordinated with the center director to oversee the safe resumption of U.S. human space flights after the Columbia shuttle tragedy and the successful implementation of new procedures to maximize the safety of space missions.
 
Dr. Whitlow started his NASA career in 1979 as a research scientist at the Langley Research Center in Virginia, where he eventually led research programs to develop technology for airframe systems and oversaw research in structural mechanics, structural dynamics, computational structures and other areas.
 
Dr. Whitlow has won many awards, including the NASA Distinguished Service Honor Medal and the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive.