ISSW35: Shock Waves Down Under. 5-14 July 2025

The International Symposia on Shock Waves (ISSW) are the meetings of the scientific community devoted to the study and the use of shock-wave related phenomena and their applications. Since the inception of the ISSW in 1957, ISSW has served as an authoritative platform for the international scientific community to meet and exchange ideas on the study of shock-wave related phenomena and their applications. The ISSW is held once every two years, frequently at venues in close proximity to centres of activity in the field.

Shock waves are generated in various media such as gases, liquids, and solids, and are often accompanied by interesting yet complicated interactions. The extensive range of topics covered by the presentations at ISSW may be divided into numerous applications, such as combustion, high-speed flight, detonations, propulsion, physical chemistry, materials, medicine, biology, and geology; the use and development of devices and facilities that generate shock waves, such as shock tubes and shock tunnels, with the associated technology including measurement and diagnostic techniques, as well as fundamental studies such as reflection and refraction of shocks, their interaction with vortices, Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities, chemical kinetics, and many other important phenomena.

The last ISSW was hosted in Daegu, South Korea in 2023 (https://www.issw34.org/).

ISSW is supported by the International Shock Wave Institute (ISWI) (https://iswi.jp/) and the ISSW International Advisory Committee.

Important work in the field of Shock Waves is chronicled in the journal Shock Waves (https://www.springer.com/journal/193).

Since the first ISSW in Boston, USA in 1957, ISSW has been hosted in all of the corners of the globe, generally every two years.

Co-chairs:

Local Organising Committee:

International Advisory Committee:

Program at a Glance

A tentative ISSW35 program can be found below. Please click on the image to see an enlarged version.

Plenary Speakers

The distinguished plenary speakers which we have selected for ISSW35 can be found below:

The Ray Stalker Lecture

Emeritus Professor Hans Hornung
California Institute of Technology
Former director of GALCIT - Graduate Aerospace Laboratories

Hans G. Hornung received a B.Mech.E. (1960) and a M.Eng.Sci. (1962) degree with honours from the University of Melbourne and a Ph. D. (1965) in Aeronautics from Imperial College, London. He worked at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories, Melbourne (1962-63, and 1965-67), and on the faculty of the Physics Department of the Australian National University (1967-80), with a sabbatical year as a Humboldt Fellow in Darmstadt, Germany, 1974. In 1980 he accepted an offer to head the Institute for Experimental Fluid Mechanics of the DLR in Göttingen, Germany. He was appointed director of the Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories at Caltech in 1987. He is Emeritus since 2005. He made contributions in gasdynamics, notably in Mach reflection and high-enthalpy real-gas effects, in separated flows, and in wind tunnel technology. Honors and awards include election to the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, the US National Academy of Engineering, award of the Ludwig Prandtl Ring of the German Aerospace Society (DGLR), the ICAS von Karman Award for international cooperation in aeronautics, the AIAA Fluid Dynamics Award, and the AIAA Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Award. He received a D.Sc. honoris causa from the ETH Zurich. He is a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science of the Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society and of the International Shock Wave Institute.

The Irvine Glass Lecture

Associate Professor Sally Bane
Purdue University
Director of Laboratory & Hands-On Education in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Sally Bane is an Associate Professor and the Director of Laboratory & Hands-On Education in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University.  She received her BS in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia and her MS and PhD in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology.  Dr. Bane’s research interests span a broad range of problems in plasmas, high-speed flows, and combustion. She is a founding member of Purdue’s Cold Plasmas Preeminent Team, an interdisciplinary cohort of faculty studying nonequilibrium plasmas for a wide range of engineering and scientific applications.  Dr. Bane’s plasma research focuses on ultra-fast plasma spectroscopy, plasma-induced flow diagnostics, and plasma flow and combustion control. She received an AFOSR Young Investigator award to study high-pressure plasma-assisted combustion and continues to explore ways to use plasma-based actuators to control high-speed aerodynamic flows and turbulent combustion.  Dr. Bane is also involved in hypersonics research at Purdue, focusing on non-intrusive optical diagnostics for accurate measurements of high-speed turbulent flows and active control of boundary layers and shock wave/boundary layer interaction.

The Paull Vieille Lecture

Professor Matthew McGilvray
The University of Oxford
Head of the Oxford Hypersonics Group

Matthew McGilvray is a Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. Matthew studied at the University of Queensland for both his Bachelors (2003) and PhD (2008) in aerospace engineering. Professor McGilvray has established two research groups at Oxford, focussed on particle deposition in turbomachinery and high-speed aerothermodynamics. Professor McGilvray heads the UK Centre of Excellence in Hypersonics Science and Technology. Professor McGilvray led the development of multiple large scale hypersonic wind tunnels, including the Oxford High Density Tunnel and the Oxford T6 Stalker Tunnel, as part of the UK’s National Wind Tunnel Facility. Professor McGilvray was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering/MoD Research Chair in Hypersonic vehicles in 2021.

Professor Vincent Wheatley
The University of Queensland (UQ)
Co-Director of UQ's Centre for Hypersonics

Professor Vincent Wheatley is co-Director of the Centre for Hypersonics at the University of Queensland. He obtained his PhD in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 2005. Vincent is an expert in the computational, experimental and theoretical modelling of supersonic gas and plasma flows. His most significant research contributions have been on overcoming the challenges facing accelerator scramjets and the magnetic suppression of shock driven instabilities in fusion plasmas. Vincent has led experimental research projects in UQ’s T4 Shock Tunnel ranging from fundamental experiments on porous fuel injection and boundary layer combustion to the testing of complex-geometry scramjet engines. In 2018, he was named Australia’s Research Field Leader in Aviation and Aerospace Engineering. He also received the 2017 Australian Award for University Teaching - Award for Teaching Excellence (Physical Sciences and Engineering) and has supervised 14 PhD students to completion, with all moving on to research careers in industry, government or academia.

Mr Carey Scott
NASA Langley Research Center
Head of the NASA SCIFLI (Scientifically Calibrated In-Flight Imaging) Team

Carey ‘CJ’ Scott is the Principal Investigator for the Scientifically Calibrated In-Flight Imagery team, which is based out of NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA.  Mr. Scott is a graduate of California State University, Chico where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics in 2010. Mr. Scott has been supporting the SCIFLI team since 2017, having completed over 40 successful scientific observation missions (to date) over a wide range of spacecraft configurations and flight regimes. Mr. Scott was the recipient of the NASA Silver Achievement Medal in 2020 for outstanding service during the successful observation of the Hayabusa2 sample return capsule, and the Early Career Achievement Medal in 2024 recognizing his leadership of the SCIFLI team and its impact on human spaceflight.

Professor Oren Petel
Carleton University
Head of the Impact Dynamics Research Group

Oren Petel is a Professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Prior to joining Carleton University in August 2013, he completed his PhD research at McGill University, where his focus was condensed phase detonation, terminal ballistics, and shock wave physics. Much of his current work is related to the dynamic response of multiphase protective materials and technologies, as well as the development and use of novel diagnostic capabilities for injury biomechanics investigations under blast and impact loading. His group has developed several polymer nanocomposite materials that improve the ballistic performance of multilayer transparent armour and pelvic/extremity undergarment systems against environmental debris from improvised explosive devices. He was a guest editor for a two-part special thematic issue on blast-induced traumatic brain injury published in the journal Shock Waves. In 2023, he received the US Army’s Honorary Award for Science for his contributions to soldier protection.

Professor Ivett Leyva
Texas A&M University
Head of the Aerospace Engineering Department

Ivett A. Leyva has been the head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, which has about 1000 students and 48 faculty members, since September 2021.  Previously, she was at the Air Force for 15 years. Her last assignment was as the Program Element Monitor for Munitions and Hypersonics (S&T) at the Air Force, Headquarters.  Prior to that, she was the program officer for Hypersonic Aerodynamics at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, AFRL and before that she was a researcher at the AFRL Rocket Lab working on liquid rocket instabilities. Her technical expertise is in hypersonic aerodynamics and liquid rocket engines. Ivett holds a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree from Caltech. Her Ph.D. was in Aeronautics.  Ivett has six patents and has authored numerous papers and two book chapters. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Air Force Research Laboratory, a National Associate of the National Research Council of the National Academies, and a recipient of a Civilian Achievement Medal and two meritorious Civilian Service Awards and Medals from the Air Force. 

Professor Hideyuki Tanno
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Former manager of the JAXA-HIEST (High-Enthalpy Shock Tunnel)

Hideyuki Tanno received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Tohoku University in 2005. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a visiting researcher at the University of Queensland, where he conducted research on friction drag in scramjet combustors. His primary research projects include re-entry vehicles and Japan's asteroid sample return missions, Hayabusa1 and Hayabusa2. For both missions, he conducted spectroscopic measurements of fireballs from the stratosphere aboard NASA aircraft. In addition, he pursues fundamental research on hypersonic boundary-layer transition, aerodynamic heating, supersonic combustion, and rotating detonation engines. He currently serves as a board member of the Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, a visiting professor at Tohoku University, and a senior researcher at JAXA-HIEST (High-Enthalpy Shock Tunnel).

Abstracts are sought under the following topics:

• Atmospheric Entry
• Blast Waves
• Chemical Kinetics
• Chemically Reactive Flows
• Detonation, Combustion and Ignition
• Diagnostics and Flow Visualization
• Facilities and Instrumentation
• High Enthalpy Gas Dynamics
• Medical and Biological Applications
• Multiphase Flows
• Nozzle Flows and Supersonic Jets
• Numerical Methods
• Plasmadynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics
• Propulsion
• Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability
• Shock Induced Surface Chemistry Interactions
• Shock Wave Interaction with Various Media
• Shock Wave Reflection, Interaction, and Focussing
• Shock Waves in Dense Gases
• Shock Waves in Internal Flows
• Shock Waves in Liquids
• Shock Waves in Rarefied Gases
• Shock Waves in Solids
• Shock/Boundary Layer Interaction
• Shock-Vortex Interaction
• Supersonic and Hypersonic Flows

Proceedings Publication

The conference is using the Springer EquinOCS proceedings system to process both abstracts and papers. Full papers will be subject to peer review and accepted papers will be included in the proceedings of ISSW35, to be published by Springer after the conference. 

Student Competition

All students who are presenting a paper and are its first author will be automatically entered into the student competition. A total of 10 winners will be selected based on the best student oral and poster presentations. If you do not want to be entered into the student competition, please make this clear in the comments field of the submission form.

Submitting your abstract

Abstracts are to be submitted in pdf format to the Springer EquinOCS system, which can be accessed at the following url: https://equinocs.springernature.com/service/issw35

The abstract template is available for download, in both Latex and MS Word formats, from here: https://mechmining.uq.edu.au/files/10565/ISSW35_abstract%20template_LaTeX_and_MSWord.zip

Note 1: it is necessary to also copy-and-paste the text from your abstract into the text field provided on the EquinOCS form. Do not worry about images or formatting for this step.

Note 2: details of the full paper template will be provided once abstract submission closes.

Presentation type

When you submit your abstract, you will be requested to select a category from the list below. For each topic there is an option for "oral presentation" or "poster"; please choose the appropriate option from the list below:

• Atmospheric Entry
• Blast Waves
• Chemical Kinetics
• Chemically Reactive Flows
• Detonation, Combustion and Ignition
• Diagnostics and Flow Visualization
• Facilities and Instrumentation
• High Enthalpy Gas Dynamics
• Medical and Biological Applications
• Multiphase Flows
• Nozzle Flows and Supersonic Jets
• Numerical Methods
• Plasmadynamics and Magnetohydrodynamics
• Propulsion
• Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability
• Shock Induced Surface Chemistry Interactions
• Shock Wave Interaction with Various Media
• Shock Wave Reflection, Interaction, and Focussing
• Shock Waves in Dense Gases
• Shock Waves in Internal Flows
• Shock Waves in Liquids
• Shock Waves in Rarefied Gases
• Shock Waves in Solids
• Shock/Boundary Layer Interaction
• Shock-Vortex Interaction
• Supersonic and Hypersonic Flows

We look forward to seeing you in Brisbane in 2025,

The ISSW35 Local Organising Committee

Registration:

Conference registration information and prices will be forthcoming.

Visa:

Information for those requiring visas to come to the conference will be forthcoming.

Australia:

Further information about Australia will be forthcoming.