He is also a key member of the Technion’s Center for High-Speed Flight (TeCHFlight), which is working on hypersonic technology that will enable practical, aircraft-like access to space and could eventually lead to much faster commercial air travel across the globe and a vital “rapid-response” component to national security.

Prof. Lefkowitz’s group in the Combustion and Diagnostics Laboratory aims to drive advancements in combustion engineering and address challenges related to zero-carbon fuel implementation, high-speed propulsion, and pollutant formation in combustion devices. Of their research, he says, “If you want to live in a world where we reduce the carbon dioxide in the air as quickly as possible, you need to use zero-carbon fuels.”

His specific research interests include plasma chemical conversion of alternative fuels, plasma-assisted ignition and combustion, hypergolic ignition of solid fuels, porous media burners, and infrared optical methods for sensing and imaging of reacting flows.

Prof. Lefkowitz has been recognized with numerous appointments and awards. He is a Zuckerman Faculty Scholar and a member of the editorial board of the scientific journal Combustion and Flame, and sits on the executive committee of the Israel Plasma Science and Technology Association.

Before joining the Technion in 2017, Prof. Lefkowitz was a National Research Council Research Associate at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory from 2016 to 2017. He holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University.