Education
Brief Bio
Dr. Sonya Dick is an Assistant Professor in the Leslie A. Rose Department of Mechanical Engineering at South Dakota Mines. Her research focuses on high-energy-density physics, high-speed compressible flows, shock physics, hydrodynamics instabilities, and multiphysics modeling for extreme-condition environments relevant to inertial fusion energy, planetary dynamics, and aerospace systems. She combines computational fluid dynamics, analytical modeling, and experimental design support to study how shocks, material interfaces, rheological properties, and equation-of-state behavior influence the evolution of complex flows.
Research Expertise
Dr. Dick’s work includes modeling Richtmyer–Meshkov, Rayleigh-Taylor, and Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities, laser-driven shock experiments, cyclic loading attenuation under dynamic compression, and multiphase flow problems involving non-ideal materials. Her research uses and develops high-performance computing tools to simulate shocked interfaces, extract experimentally measurable quantities, and connect numerical predictions with diagnostics such as VISAR and radiography. A central goal of her work is to improve predictive modeling capabilities for fluids and materials under extreme pressures and temperatures.
Teaching
At South Dakota Mines, Dr. Dick leads a multidisciplinary research group of undergraduate and graduate students working on computational and experimental-support projects in fluid mechanics, shock physics, inertial fusion energy, and high-energy-density science. She is especially interested in mentoring students toward careers in national laboratories, aerospace, energy, and fusion-related industries. Dr. Dick also teaches courses in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and fission and fusion energy systems.