Our Team
Vortex Hydropower was formed out of discussions between Naval Postgraduate School Distinguished Professor Emeritus Max Platzer and Andrew Skow, an aeronautical engineer, aerospace executive, and entrepreneur who was recipient of the prestigious Wright Brothers Medal. Platzer and Skow met in the mid-1980s at a conference on using water facilities for aerodynamic and hydrodynamic research. The decision to pursue this idea stemmed from conversations about unsteady aerodynamics that originally focused on the design of flapping wing micro air vehicles.
Andrew and Max are joined on the team by Andrew’s son Geoffrey Skow and aeronautical engineer Brooke Smith. Geoff worked under Andrew on the development of the Q-Alpha flight energy awareness display, and has been on the founding team of several venture-backed technology startups, including Techstars startup Fishbowl VR. Brooke worked under Andrew at his company Eidetics, which conducted advanced aeronautical research and technology development.
Andrew Skow
Aeronautical engineer, aerospace executive, and entrepreneur who was recipient of the Wright Brothers Medal for his pioneering the development of both passive and active Forebody Vortex Control.
He was Chief Aerosciences Engineer in the design and flight testing of the Northrop F-20 TigerShark, the first Northrop aircraft to achieve Mach 2 speed.
Max Platzer
Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Naval Postgraduate School. Partner at AeroHydro Research and Technology. Adjunct Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis.
Expert in Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics as well as Dynamics, Controls, Vehicles and Robotics.
Geoffrey Skow
VP Communications and Marketing at SkovAero, developer of the Q-Alpha flight energy awareness display.
Virtual reality user testing and analytics startup founder through the prestigious Techstars startup accelerator. MBA and founding team member of three venture-backed startup companies.
Brooke Smith
Former Chief Scientist and Senior Engineer for Aeronautical Technology at Eidetics. Principal at AeroArts.
Invented the Scorpio nonlinear aerodynamic testing system, a 6-degree of freedom dynamic model support for complete flight dynamic simulation with simultaneous aerodynamic force measurement and flow visualization.