Byron Erath has been promoted from associate professor to full professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering.
Erath received a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University. He then attended Purdue University, ultimately graduating with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 2009. Following graduation, he completed postdoctoral research at George Washington University, before joining the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Clarkson University as an Assistant Professor in the fall of 2012. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018.
Erath directs the Fluid-Acoustic-STructures (FAST) lab at Clarkson University His research interests encompass biomedical investigations of normal and disordered voice production, fundamental fluid mechanics investigations of vortex dynamics and vortex-structure interactions, and the production and transport of respiratory particles with application to the transmission of airborne infectious diseases. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles in these fields and has also written multiple articles on the science of COVID-19 transmission for popular media outlets. He has received over $2M in external research funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR).
Erath is a member of the Clarkson University Million Dollar club, and was awarded the Clarkson Excellence in Research and Scholarship award in 2019.