Biography

John Doherty is a Reader in the Fluids & Vehicles research group at the University of Surrey. His research interests cover aerodynamic design and optimisation, integration of active aerodynamic technologies, multidisciplinary design optimisation, uncertainty quantification and conceptual design. Many of the outputs from his research have been used by industry for final product design, across both the Aerospace and Automotive sectors. He is a recognised leader in research, development and application of advanced multidisciplinary design and optimisation approaches for supporting requirements exploration, conceptual design and detailed design.

John’s research career began within the Aerodynamics Department at RAE Farnborough in 1988. His initial research addressed the need for improved geometry modelling techniques, as part of establishing CFD for novel aircraft concept design and configuration assessment. By 1990 he had begun development of advanced aerodynamic design capabilities, combining numerical optimisation, parametric geometry and CFD. The resulting CODAS capability was used widely by aerodynamic designers in Aerospace (MOD, BAES, Airbus) and Motorsport (Formula 1). At DERA and subsequently QinetiQ, he focussed on multidisciplinary integration and optimisation, combined with novel decision support developments and systems engineering approaches. The resulting MDCAD MDO capability played a key role in demonstrating both the feasibility and relevance of multidisciplinary design optimisation for industry. In recent years he was overall integration and optimisation leader within the TSB Integrated Wing project and the TSB Next Generation Composite Wing - Multi-Disciplinary Optimised Wing (NGCW-MDOW) projects. He moved to the University of Surrey in 2012. He sits on a number of international committees including the AIAA MDO Technical Committee, AIAA Value Driven Design Program Committee and ISSMO/ASMO-UK executive committee.

Research Interests

• Aerodynamic design optimisation
• Integration of active aerodynamic technologies
• Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation
• Uncertainty in design 
• Concept design and innovation
• Mass prediction and control