Theresa Ann Saxton-Fox

For More Information

• Aerospace Faculty in Focus: Theresa Saxton-Fox
• Research website

Education

• Ph. D. Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology 2018. PhD Thesis Title: ``Coherent structures, their interactions, and their effects on passive scalar transport and aero-optic distortion in a turbulent boundary layer.'' Advisor: Beverley McKeon
• M. S. Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology 2013
• B. S. Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2012

Academic Positions

• Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2019 - present
• Postdoctoral Researcher, Fluid Mechanics Transport Phenomena at Princeton University 2017 - 2018. Advisor: Marcus Hultmark.

Selected Articles in Journals

• A. Parthasarathy and T. Saxton-Fox, ``Turbulent boundary layers under spatially and temporally varying pressure gradients.'' Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 2025.
• A. Borra, Z. Flynn, A. Goza, T. Saxton-Fox, ``Intrinsic phase based proper orthogonal decomposition (IPhaB POD): a method for physically interpretable modes in near-periodic systems.'' Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 2025.
• A. Parthasarathy and T. Saxton-Fox. A family of adverse pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers with upstream favorable pressure gradients. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 2023.
• A. Towne, S. Dawson, G.A. Bree, A. Lozano-Duran, T. Saxton-Fox, A. Parthasarathy, A.R. Jones, H. Biler, C-A Yeh, H.D. Patel, K. Taira. A Database for Reduced-Complexity Modeling of Fluid Flows. AIAA Journal. 2023.
• A. Parthasarathy and T. Saxton-Fox, ``A novel experimental facility to impose unsteady pressure gradients on turbulent boundary layers.'' Experiments in Fluids. 2022.
• A. Borra and T. Saxton-Fox, ``Conditional and Space-Time POD for a Turbulent Boundary Layer with Aero-Optic Distortion.'' AIAA Journal. 2022.
• T. Saxton-Fox, A. Lozano-Duran, and B. J. McKeon. ``Amplitude and wall-normal distance variation of small scales in turbulent boundary layers,'' Physical Review Fluids. 2022.
• S. Shrivastava and T. Saxton-Fox. ``Correlation between Large-Scale Streamwise Velocity Features and the Height of Coherent Vortices in a Turbulent Boundary Layer,'' Fluids MDPI. 2021.
• T. Saxton-Fox, S. Gordevey, and B. J. McKeon. ``Effect of coherent structures on aero-optic distortion in a turbulent boundary layer,'' AIAA Journal. 2019.
• T. Saxton-Fox and B. McKeon. ``Coherent structures, uniform momentum zones, and the streamwise energy spectrum in wall-bounded turbulent flows," Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Rapids. 2017.

Articles in Conference Proceedings

• A. Agrawal, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Statistics of a turbulent boundary layer under a favorable-adverse pressure gradient.'' AIAA Scitech 2025.
• K. Manthripragada, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Relating skewness and Fourier harmonics in low Reynolds number wake flow.'' AIAA Aviation 2024. 
• A. Borra, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Evolution of a Turbulent Boundary Layer Over a Series of Pressure Gradients.'' AIAA Aviation 2024.
• E. Torres De Jesus, P. Waghmare, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Spectral Analysis of a Cylinder Wake Interacting with Coherent Structures in a Turbulent Boundary Layer.'' AIAA SciTech 2024.
• A. Parthasarathy, R. Nigam, A. Gupta, T. Elisabeth Kopperstad, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Supporting graduate women in engineering: approach and findings of a year-long program at UIUC.'' American Society of Engineering Education Conference 2023.
• Jamal, Z., Borra, A., Randeo, A., Parthasarathy, A., Hong, S., Cho, G., & Saxton-Fox, T. (2023) Planar Particle Image Velocimetry of Unsteady Adverse Pressure Gradients Imposed on a Turbulent Flow. 15th International Symposium on Particle Image Velocimetry. ISPIV 2023.
• K. Namdeo, A. Bhattacharyya, W. Zheng, K. James, T. Saxton-Fox. ''Measurement of aerodynamic loads on a passive morphing wing under unsteady motion.'' AIAA Aviation 2023.  
• A. Parthasarathy, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Spectral analysis of a turbulent boundary layer encountering steady and unsteady complex pressure gradients.'' AIAA SciTech 2023.
• T. E. Kopperstad, A. Borra, A. Beusse, C. Kim, E. Torres De Jesus, T. Saxton-Fox, P. Ansell. ``Design of Propellers with Passive Mitigation of Coherent Tip Vortex Roll-Up.'' AIAA SciTech 2023
• M. Diaz, D. Yu, P. Ansell, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Acoustics of a Rotary Wing with Passive Reduced Tip Vortex in a Static Configuration.'' AIAA SciTech 2023
• A. Parthasarathy, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Statistics of spatially- and temporally-accelerating turbulent boundary layers,'' International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena 2022.
• A. Parthasarathy, E. Torres-De Jesus, T. Saxton-Fox. ``Time-resolved PIV data for a turbulent boundary layer at 600 Retau 2300,'' AIAA Aviation 2022.
• A. Bhattacharyya, M. Bashqawi, S. Y. Kim, W. Zheng, T. Saxton-Fox, K. James. "Computational design and experimental testing of a flexible bi-stable airfoil for passive flow control," AIAA Aviation 2021.
• A. Borra and T. Saxton-Fox. "Conditional POD and Space-Time POD for a Turbulent Boundary Layer with Passive Scalar Transport and Aero-Optic Distortion," AIAA Aviation 2021.
• A. Parthasarathy, S. Suri, T. Saxton-Fox ``Modal analysis in curvilinear coordinates,'' International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics 2020/2021.
• T. Saxton-Fox, L. Ding, A. Smits, M. Hultmark. "Coherent structure deformation in a turbulent pipe flow with a spatially-developing pressure gradient," International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena Proceedings. 2019.
• L. Ding, T. Saxton-Fox, M. Hultmark, A. Smits. "Effects of pressure gradients and streamline curvature on the statistics of a turbulent pipe flow." International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena. 2019.
• A. Laskari, T. Saxton-Fox, and B. McKeon. "Organisation of velocity structures associated with large passive scalar gradients in a turbulent boundary layer." International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena Proceedings, 2019.
• T. Saxton-Fox and B. McKeon. "Modeling momentum and scalar transport in a wall-bounded turbulent flow," International Symposium on Turbulence and Shear Flow Phenomena Proceedings. 2017.
• T. Saxton-Fox and B. McKeon. "Scale interactions and 3D critical layers in wall-bounded turbulent flows," International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Proceedings. 2016.
• K. Rosenberg, T. Saxton-Fox, A. Lozano-Duran, A. Towne, and B. McKeon. "Toward low order models of wall turbulence using resolvent analysis," Proceedings of the 2016 Center for Turbulence Research Summer Program. 2016.
• T. Saxton-Fox, B. McKeon, S. Gordeyev, and A. Smith. "Aero-optical distortion as a marker of turbulent structure," International Symposium on Particle Image Velocimetry Conference Proceedings. 2015.