William Matthaeus, a respected theoretical and computational physicist recently appointed director of the Delaware Space Grant program, has been named the Unidel Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware.

The named professorship, awarded by UD President Dennis Assanis and Provost Domenico Grasso, became effective Sept. 1.

“Your appointment to this endowed professorship is in recognition of your achievements as a scholar and educator,” Assanis and Grasso wrote in a letter to Matthaeus. “We greatly appreciate your outstanding contributions and service to the University of Delaware.”

Matthaeus, who earned his doctorate in physics at the College of William and Mary, joined the UD faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 1983. He is also part of the Bartol Research Institute at the University.

With expertise in turbulence theory, solar wind, space plasma physics and numerical simulations, he has been the primary investigator on grants from NASA, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education and has been co-author of more than 400 publications.

He is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Physical Society, and the Institute of Physics. 

Matthaeus has strong ties with NASA, having been involved with multiple missions, including Solar Probe Plus, which aims to launch an unmanned spacecraft in 2018 and get closer to the sun than any craft has gotten before, and the $1 billion MMS (Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission), launched in 2015 to study magnetic reconnection.

Unidel professorships are supported by the Unidel Foundation, which was established by Amy E. du Pont, a noted philanthropist who bequeathed her estate to create the foundation.