Dr. Benveniste (Benny) Natan is a professor at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and holder of the Stephen Berger Chair of Engineering. He heads the Sylvia and David Fine Rocket Propulsion Center at the Technion. He served as the Technion Dean of Students between 2017-2020. He is known for his work on Gel Propellants for Rocket and Ramjet engines and boron combustion in ramjets. Dr. Natan is presently a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, an Associate Fellow of AIAA, a member of The Combustion Institute, The Institute of Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems, Israeli Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He also serves as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Energetic Materials and Chemical Propulsion (Begell House), and the journal Gels.
Dr. Natan’s research deals mainly with all aspects of Gel Propulsion, i.e., Rheology, Flow, Atomization and Combustion. His work is considered as pioneering and his experimental observations on the combustion of gel fuel droplets are considered as fundamental for understanding gel propellants. Dr. Natan is also conducting research on Hybrid Rockets, Hydrogen Peroxide and Metal Combustion.
Dr. Natan has 50 refereed papers in professional scientific journals, about 100 publications in conference proceedings and 2 patents. He was elected 12 times as outstanding lecturer at the Technion.
He was a Visiting Professor at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy (Sept. 2013 – Feb. 2014 and Mar-Sept 2016), at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece (Sept. 2003 – Feb. 2004) and also a National Research Council Research Associate at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, USA.
Dr. Natan serves also as the Chief Scientific Adviser in the startup company NewRocket.
Faculty:Aerospace Engineering
