Karen Burnham

Almost everything about aircraft engineering involves safety critical decisions, especially electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electromagnetic environmental effects (E3). One of the most dramatic illustrations of this is making sure that aircraft stay in the sky when lightning bursts nearby or when they suffer a direct strike (an oft-witnessed phenomenon). In this talk Karen Burnham will go over some lightning basics as well as specific techniques to both protect aircraft from these strikes and also prove to certifying agencies that the protection is adequate. This will cover both historical approaches and cutting-edge combinations of simulation and testing. We hope you'll join us and allay any fears you might have when your passenger jet flies through a thunderstorm--understand exactly how it's been designed to survive one of the most hostile electromagnetic phenomena that terrestrial nature produces.

Biography:

Karen Burnham is a Principal Scientist at Electro Magnetic Applications in Denver, CO. She is an iNARTE certified EMC engineer with experience in both the aerospace/defense and automotive industries. At NASA JSC she worked on the Orion spacecraft and pyrotechnic systems. She was able to work on the Dream Chaser spacecraft and the F-35 fighter jet. She spent several years working at Ford Motor Company on traditional vehicles like the Ford Edge and Lincoln Continental and also on their newest line of electric hybrid vehicles such as the Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. She sits on several international standards committees and was recently elected to the IEEE EMC Society Board of Directors.

Email:

Address:Colorado, United States