Dr. Ivett Leyva is a Senior Aerospace Engineer and Branch Technical Advisor with AFRL’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Dr. Leyva has a fascinating pathway into STEM. Born in Torreon, Mexico, she set her sights on moving to the United States to pursue a STEM career. She applied to a United Nations program which helped students from Mexico and Central America seek higher education in the United States. Ivett was selected out of thousands of applicants, choosing Whitman College in Washington. She soon moved on to California Institute of Technology (CalTech) for her bachelor’s in applied science and engineering, and eventually, a Master’s and Ph.D. in aeronautics.
Prior to working for AFRL, she worked as a Mechanical Engineer for General Electric’s Global Research Center in New York. Today Dr. Leyva oversees the technical accomplishments of an 11-member team executing a $36M annual budget. She has published work on flow characteristics, combustion stability, and injector characterization, and Dr. Leyva oversees the Hydrocarbon Boost program. So far, she acquired a total of six patents on Pulse Detonation Engines.
Dr. Leyva’s 40-minute technical discussion on Hypersonic Research and following Q&A session will cover the research portfolio and the hard science needs of future hypersonic platforms. She invites members of the public, local educational institutions, AFOSR, AFLCMC/EB, AFLCMC/EN, and AFWiSE to join the event. Registration is required, and seating is limited to 100 people.
