Dr. Dryer (BAE’66, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) obtained his Ph.D. in Aerospace and Mechanical Sciences at Princeton University (1971) and was engaged in combustion research at Princeton University for more than 50 years. He served on the Professional Research Staff from 1971 – 1981, joined the tenured faculty in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 1981, and became Professor Emeritus in 2013. He also holds an honorary faculty position in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne, AU (since 2015). Dr. Dryer joined the University of South Carolina as an Educational Foundation Distinguished Research Professor in Mechanical Engineering in October 2016. His prior extensive research facilities have been relocated to the recently established Fuels, Energy Conversion, and Propulsion Technologies Research facilities within the University of South Carolina McNair Center.

Along with a number of collaborators at U of SC and elsewhere, Dr. Dryer is actively engaged in experimental and computational research involving a wide spectrum of topics on kinetic and physical fuel property effects relevant to optimizing the fuels/energy conversion interface for ground-based power generation/transportation, aircraft applications, and chemical propulsion. His fundamental research interests are focused on applications-driven needs for advancing dynamic performance, increasing energy resource (carbon) utilization efficiency, reducing air-pollutant emissions, and mitigating fire-safety-related hazards associated with gaseous and liquid flammable production and use. His research experience encompasses a wide range of fuels from hydrogen, syngas, natural gas, chemical process and low BTU gases to individual liquid hydrocarbon and oxygenated species, their mixtures, petroleum-derived real fuels (including gasolines, diesel fuels, HFO’s, and crudes), and (both hydrogenated and oxygenated) alternative components derived from natural gas and bio-resources blended with petroleum fuels.

Dr. Dryer has published extensively (Scopus-1/1/20: 368 articles; H=75) and consulted for the government, industry, and the legal profession. His services on advisory committees include efforts for the National Materials Advisory Board/National Research Council (five times), NASA, DOE-BES, DOE-ARPA-E, DARPA, ARO, and NIST. He is a former associate editor and editorial board member of Combustion Science and Technology, co-editor for the Proceedings of the 26th and 27th International Symposiums on Combustion, and a former editorial board member of the International Journal of Chemical Kinetics and of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science. He is currently a Fellow (2018) of the International Combustion Institute (2000 Silver Medal, 2012 Egerton Gold Medal; 1976/1981/2014 plenary speaker), a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Fellow), the Society of Automotive Engineers (Fellow), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Associate Fellow; 2014 Propulsion and Combustion Medal), the American Chemical Society, and the National Fire Protection Association.