Charbel Farhat and his Research Group (FRG) develop mathematical models, advanced computational algorithms, and high-performance software to support
the design, analysis, and digital twinning of complex systems in aerospace, marine, mechanical, and naval engineering. Their contributions drive major
advances in Simulation-Based Engineering Science. Their current engineering research focuses on reliable autonomous carrier landings in rough seas, the
dissipation of vertical landing energies through structural flexibility, nonlinear aeroelasticity of N+3 aircraft with high-aspect-ratio wings, parachute
pulsation and flutter, pendulum motion in main parachute clusters, coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) in supersonic inflatable aerodynamic
decelerators for Mars landing, the flight dynamics and trajectory optimization of hypersonic systems, and advanced digital twinning.
On the theoretical and computational front, their research emphasizes high-performance, multiscale modeling for the high-fidelity analysis of
multi-component, multi-physics problems; discrete-event-free embedded boundary methods for CFD and FSI; efficient Bayesian optimization leveraging
physics-based surrogate models; modeling and quantification of model-form uncertainty; probabilistic, physics-based machine learning; mechanics-informed
artificial neural networks for data-driven constitutive modeling; and efficient nonlinear projection-based model order reduction for time-critical
applications, including design, active control, and digital twinning.
Biosketch
Charbel Farhat is the Vivian Church Hoff Professor of Aircraft Structures in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where he is also a Professor
in the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering. From 2008 to 2023, he chaired the Department of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, serving from 2022 to 2023 as its inaugural James and Anna Marie Spilker
Chair. He also directed the Stanford-King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Center of Excellence for Aeronautics and Astronautics (2014--2024) and
served on multiple national advisory boards, including the Space Technology Industry-Government-University Roundtable (2017--2023), the
U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board
(2015--2019), and the Bureau of Industry and Security's Emerging Technology and Research Advisory Committee (2008--2018). From 2007 to 2018, he was Director
of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center at Stanford. Recognized by the U.S. Navy as a Primary Key-Influencer, he flew with the
Blue Angels during Fleet Week 2014.
He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and is a member of three national academies: the
National Academy of Engineering, the
Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), and the
Lebanese Academy of Sciences. His honors include a
Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship from the Department of Defense and Docteur Honoris Causa degrees from Ecole Normale Superieure Paris-Saclay,
Ecole Centrale de Nantes, and Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Arts et Metiers. He is a laureate of the TAKREEM AMERICA Foundation for Scientific and
Technological Achievement and an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Engineering.
Farhat is a Fellow of several professional societies, including the AIAA, ASME, IACM, SES, SIAM, USACM, and WIF. He was knighted in the Order of Academic
Palms and awarded the Chevalier Medal by the Prime Minister of France. Among his many distinctions, he has received the Lifetime Achievement Award and
Spirit of St. Louis Medal from the ASME, the Ashley Award for Aeroelasticity, Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Award, Collier Aerospace
HyperX/AIAA Structures Award, and Journal Authors Seminar Award from the AIAA, as well as the Computational Fluid Dynamics Award from SAE International.
From the USACM, he has been awarded the John von Neumann Medal, the Computational and Applied Sciences Award, and the R.H. Gallagher Special Achievement
Award. His contributions to computational mechanics have also been recognized with the Gauss-Newton Medal, the IACM Award, the Computational Mechanics
Award, and the Young Investigator Award from the IACM. Additionally, he has received the Gordon Bell Prize and Sidney Fernbach Award from the IEEE Computer
Society, the Grand Prize from the Japan Society for Computational Engineering and Science, the Modeling and Simulation Award from the Department of Defense,
and the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation and the White House.
