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Aerospace Engineering Program

Faculty and Staff

Nik Djordjevic
Adjunct Lecturer

Mr. Djordjevic has been on the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Santa Clara University as an Adjunct Lecturer since 2010. He teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in Heat Transfer, Fluid Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Thermal System Design, Propulsion, Aerospace Engineering, and Systems Engineering.

Between 1983 and 2012 he was with Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, most recently as a Manager of the Aerodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and Performance group in the Engineering Department.  His prior assignments include a Manager of the Design Guidance group, and a Space Technology Project Engineer on the NASA Space Station program, responsible for all thermal, structural, mass properties, and chemical contamination design analyses under the Lockheed Martin WP-01 contract. He was a Mission Operations lead engineer during the launch and deployment of two communication satellites under contract to the U.S. Air Force. He was a member of the management team overseeing the merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta Corporations’ spacecraft lines of business during the mid-1990s. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mr. Djordjevic helped develop a comprehensive set of engineering processes covering all aspects of the space business at Lockheed Martin. He was a recipient of multiple programs and individual awards and recognitions, and a patent disclosure award for cryogenic freezing of biological tissue on the International Space Station.

Prior to coming to Lockheed Martin, Mr. Djordjevic worked for Rockwell International’s Rocketdyne Division in Canoga Park, CA, where he designed the data instrumentation system for the Solar One power plant in Barstow, California.  He also collaborated on the design of the next-generation expander liquid rocket engines. At Aerojet Liquid Rocket Company in Sacramento, CA, he worked on the re-design of the Space Shuttle’s Orbital Maneuvering System rocket engines. 

Mr. Djordjevic has been, since 1998, adjunct faculty in the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Aerospace Engineering Department at San Jose State University and was an Associate Faculty in Engineering at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA, from 1991 to 2013.

Mr. Djordjevic graduated from UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Sciences with a BS (1976) an MS (1978) in Engineering, and a PhD candidacy (Equivalent to the Engineer Degree) (1982).

Contact Us

Program Director: Mohammad Ayoubi

Mechanical Engineering
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053

Heafey 235

408-554-5205