Thane DeWitt
Originally from a small farm in the rural South, Thane volunteered and served in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam Era where he received the Air Force Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service in the field of Aircraft Avionics Analysis and Instrumentation Systems. After attending Spokane Community College he moved to the Los Angeles area to study Deep Sea Diving at the Commercial Diving Center in Wilmington, CA.
Thane accepted a position in 1980 in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles as an engineering technician and eventually became the Laboratory Manager of the Aerospace Engineering Graduate Research Laboratories. His areas of interest and expertise were high-vacuum space simulation, cryogenics, subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels and GFD fluid flow facilities.
After taking a few years off to reconnect with family in the South, Thane accepted his current position as Laboratory Supervisor with the Sloan Automotive Laboratory here at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in April 2000. He currently assists graduate students in the design, fabrication and construction of IC engine based research apparatus and facilities. He also maintains the laboratories and facilities and procures equipment, materials and supplies that keep the laboratory in an operational condition.