School of Engineering

Prof Glen Snedden has worked in the field of gas turbine research for 25 years as part of the CSIR’s Aeronautical Systems Competency. During that time he was worked with engines and engine manufacturers from 5 different companies, ranging from Eastern Bloc to the USA on military engine life improvement analysis and experiments. He led South African involvement in two large collaborative EU Framework projects, VITAL and FUTURE dealing with high bypass engine efficiency and fan blade flutter respectively. In addition he has been a test engineer in South Africa’s tri-sonic wind tunnel (MSWT) the largest facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

While at the CSIR he led a small team of engineers and a network of University and SMME collaborators in the quest to develop small gas turbine engines of interest to the local market as well as international OEMs as well as managing all of the aeronautical research for the Department of Defence.

He left the CSIR to join the Aerospace Systems Research Group at UKZN’s Mechanical Engineering department in 2020 and now teaches Fluid Mechanics, Turbomachine Design and Heat and Mass Transfer. He is an active member of and co-founder of the Aerospace Systems Research Institute focusing on turbopump design to enable the institutes vision of putting small satellites in orbit from South Africa.

His tertiary education was initially through the then University of Natal, obtaining an MSc in Mechanical Engineering in 1996 which was followed by a part time BCom in Management through UNISA in 2003. His PhD was obtained from Durham University in the UK in 2012.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Treasurer of the International Society for Airbreathing Engines as well as the current Vice-President of the Aeronautical Society of South Africa (a Division of the Royal Aeronautical Society). In addition he holds both PrEng (SA) and CEng (UK) professional qualifications.