W. Chris Schleicher, PhD

Principal Mechanical Design Engineer at Curtiss-Wright Engineered Pump Division

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States

About

HYDRAULIC AND AERODYNAMIC DESIGN - COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS EXPERTISE - TURBOMACHINERY An up-and-coming professional with a total of 15 years research and industry experience in design and analysis of hydro-turbines and other related turbomachinery. Strong background in numerical methods in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA). A team player who understands meeting the demands of tight schedules and budgets with quality, innovative engineering. Excellent record of technical writing and presentation skills. Constantly willing to learn and improve. Accelerates when in leadership positions.

Experience

  • Curtiss-Wright Corporation (On-site)
    • Principal Mechanical Design Engineer
      Jun 2026 - Present · 1 mo

    • Lead Mechanical Design Engineer
      Mar 2025 - Jun 2026 · 1 yr 4 mos

    • Senior Mechanical Design Engineer
      Feb 2016 - Mar 2025 · 9 yrs 2 mos

  • Lehigh University (4 yrs 2 mos)
    • Post-doctoral Research Associate
      Jan 2015 - Feb 2016 · 1 yr 2 mos

      Working under the supervision of Professor Keith Moored, I am conducting research to investigate the fluid-structure interaction mechanisms that lead to high-speed, high-efficiency swimming in animals. I am helping to extend an in-house boundary element code to include a structual solver, efficient algorithms for large-scale problems and coupled optimization methods, and explore how shape, gait, and material properties combine to lead to optimal swimmers.

    • Researcher
      Jan 2012 - Dec 2014 · 3 yrs

      Designing a micro-hydro turbine for use in low head, low flow situations for the Navy. It will eventually have commercial applications as well.

  • Intern at voith hydro
    Jun 2009 - Dec 2010 · 1 yr 7 mos

    I had three co-op experiences where I was actively immersed in the hydro-turbine industry. Projects I worked on included calibrating computer simulation results to model experiment measurements, validating software for simulating fish in turbines with computer simulations and physical testing, and developing a database to study the effects of tweaking geometry on stress levels of Francis turbines.