Ken Franko, PhD

Ken Franko is a Senior Software Engineer at Google.

Ken was previously a senior member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratory, where he helped to create the next generation of computational fluid dynamics codes for national defense application.

Ken’s thesis, Linear and Nonlinear Processes in Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition to Turbulence, advances the physical understanding of the fundamental processes involved in transition to turbulence of boundary layers on vehicles which travel at speeds greater than 5 times the speed of sound. Understanding the physical processes of boundary layer transition is key to ultimately predicting the heat loads that these vehicles experience. Different aspects of the work have been or will be submitted to the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and Physics of Fluids.