Upon completing his PhD in Aeronautical Engineering from Queen Mary College, Jonathan Cooper spent 3 years at the Royal Aerospace Establishment Farnborough working on system identification methods for Ground Vibration Testing and Flight Flutter Testing applications. He then moved to the University of Manchester as a “young-blood” lecturer, staying there for 18 years, including a spell as the Head of School. Prof Cooper then spent some time at the University of Liverpool as Professor of Aeroelasticity and Aerostructures, before becoming the Sir George White Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Bristol.
Over the past 30 years he has worked closely with industry in the UK, Europe and worldwide to develop solutions that enable aircraft designs to be more fuel efficient and envionmentally friendly through exploitation of the interactions between the airflow and aircraft structures. His Airbus / Royal Academy of Engineering sponsored chair is one of only 7 in the UK. Prof Cooper has acted as Principal Investigator on over 50 projects sponsored by the UK Govt, EU and industry. He has supervised 55 PhD students and 28 Research Associates, and given 14 invited keynote presentations to top international conferences. He was / is a member of UK REF Engineering assessment panels in 2014 and 2021.
Jonathan is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is currently the Immediate Past-President of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Jonathan Cooper holds the Royal Academy of Engineering Airbus Sir George White Chair in Aerospace Engineering and has an international reputation in the fields of aeroelasticity, loads, structural dynamics, adaptive aircraft structures and aeroelastic optimization.
His current research involves the following main research themes all focussed on the development of new efficient future aircraft designs:
Novel technologies for loads control
Improved measurement and modelling of structural / control system nonlinearities and more accurate and efficient prediction of aeroservoelastic behaviour
Design of high aspect ratio winged aircraft
Efficient and accurate prediction of uncertainties in aircraft performance
Improved multi-disciplinary design optimisation and certification for future wing structures
Current teaching the 4th Year Aeroelasticity Module and acting as Structures Consultant on the AVDASI4 Aircraft Design Module
Over the past 30 years I have taught a wide range of modules on Aircraft Structures, Aeroelasticity, Vibrations, Aircraft Design, Engineering Mathematics at the three universities I have worked at.
Continuing professional development is also an essential role of universities and I have organized and led short courses in Modal Testing (14 times) and Signal Processing and Vibration Testing (5 times). The short course Introduction to Aircraft Aeroelasticity and Loads has been run in-house 18 times at companies across Europe and South America, and this led to the publication of the Wiley text-book “Introduction to Aircraft Aeroelasticity and Loads” 2nd edition 2015 ISBN 978-1-118-48801-0 (also a Chinese edition) which is one of the best sellers in the Wiley Aerospace Series.
Publications are available here https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/jonathan-e-cooper/publications/