James Wall

Research Assistant

BACKGROUND

James is from Washington State. They received a B.S. from Stanford University in Mechanical Engineering with a Thermo, Fluids, and Heat Transfer Concentration and honors in Ethics in Society. James’s passion for turbomachinery stems from their interest in rocket engines and subsequent rotations as a NASA Pathways intern at Marshall Space Flight Center related to rocket engine turbopumps. In undergrad, they co-led the school’s amateur rocketry team, co-led the development of a flight payload to the ISS, contributed to research in the Stanford Propulsion and Space Exploration Group (SPaSE), and wrote an honors thesis titled “Environmental Justice in Space.” James is the 2024 recipient of the W. C. Reynolds Prize for Excellence in Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics, and Energy Science. In their free time, they enjoy bike repair and musical theater.

RESEARCH

James is currently pursuing an S.M. in the Gas Turbine Laboratory where they study cavitation in rocket engine turbopumps. Their current focus is thermal suppression effects and onset of cavitation instabilities in inducers.

EXPERTISE

Turbopump suction performance

Turbopump experiments in waterflow test facilities

jmgwall@mit.edu