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University of Maryland (UMD) Aerospace Engineering graduate student Grant Duemmel was recognized with a 2024-25 Outstanding Graduate Assistant Award. Given to only the top 2% of UMD graduate assistants across campus each year, the award recognizes Duemmel’s exceptional contributions to research, mentorship, and technical leadership within the department and beyond.
A second-year Master’s student and graduate research assistant in Professor Stuart Laurence’s High-Speed Aerodynamics and Propulsion Lab (HAPL), Duemmel’s research focuses on hypersonic shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions on conical-compression corner geometries. His work—analyzing experimental data from UMD’s High Temperature Ludwieg Tube—provides critical insights into unsteady loading behavior for the design of flight surfaces on hypersonic vehicles and projectiles. He recently presented his findings at the AIAA SciTech 2025 conference and is preparing his research for publication.
Beyond his primary research, Duemmel has contributed to several major projects, including aligning a Focused-Laser Differential Interferometer for UMD’s Multiphase Investigations Supersonic Tunnel (MIST) and capturing global heat-flux measurements using temperature-sensitive paint. He has also played a key role in preparing HAPL’s subscale BOLT-2 geometry for testing, finalizing model assembly and sensor instrumentation. His leadership extends to mentoring undergraduates as a Research Project Group Leader for the department’s ENAE 100 course.
Laurence nominated Duemmel for his technical expertise, leadership, and dedication to advancing high-speed aerodynamics research.
“Grant has conducted the first major experimental campaign in our new large-scale hypersonic wind tunnel at UMD and introduced novel image-processing techniques to analyze shock disturbances,” Laurence said.
Duemmel’s contributions also extend to a collaboration with the U.S. Air Force’s AEDC Tunnel 9, a national facility for high-speed aerodynamics testing. His role in this critical hypersonics research has included technical instrumentation, data acquisition, and training both graduate and undergraduate students.
“I am truly grateful and honored to be recognized with this award,” Duemmel said. “I’m humbled to be among other outstanding graduate assistants at UMD and thankful for the support of Dr. Laurence, my peers at HAPL, and the entire Aerospace Engineering department.”
Duemmel, who grew up in Bel Air, Maryland, earned his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia before joining UMD. He recently accepted a position at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he will work in the Vehicle Design and Technologies Group.
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