Hyeoksu Lee

Last updated: Feb 2026

Hi there👋 I’m a PhD candidate at Caltech, passionate about leveraging numerical modeling, high-performance computing, and machine learning for solving complex problems.

My current research focuses on developing a numerical solver for compressible multi-phase turbulent flows that scales to tens of thousands of GPUs on exascale supercomputers. Previously, I worked on developing neural networks for modeling and optimization of insect-inspired flapping wing aerodynamics.

🎉News
[Jan 2026] Our paper on MFC 5.0 has been accepted for publication in Computer Physics Communications
[Mar 2025] Our paper on MFC 5.0 is now available on arXiv
[Mar 2025] Our work on NN-based flapping wing optimization was featured by Scilight
[Mar 2025] One first-author paper was published on Physics of Fluids as Featured Articles

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Education

Ph.D candidate in Mechanical Engineering @California Institute of Technology
Advisor: Prof. Tim Colonius

M.S. in Mechanical Engineering @Seoul National University
Advisor: Prof. Haecheon Choi

B.S. in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering @Seoul National University
Summa Cum Laude

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Research Interest

• Fluid mechanics: turbulence, multi-phase flows and biological fluid dynamics
  
• Numerical methods: multi-scale multi-phase flow models
  
• High-performance computing: MPI and GPU-accelerated simulations
  
• Machine learning for fluids

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Publication

B. Wilfong, H. Le Berre, A. Radhakrishnan, A. Gupta, D. Vaca-Revelo, D. Adam, H. Yu, H. Lee, J. R. Chreim, M. Carcana Barbosa, Y. Zhang, E. Cisneros-Garibay, A. Gnanaskandan, M. Rodriguez Jr., R. D. Budiardja, S. Abbott, T. Colonius and S. H. Bryngelson, “MFC 5.0: An exascale many-physics flow solver,” Computer Physics Communications, 110055, 2026

H. Lee, S. Oh and H. Choi, “Neural-network based optimization of the wing kinematics and geometry of a hovering flapping flight,” Physics of Fluids, 37(3), 031918, 2025
*selected as Featured Articles
*featured by Scilight

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Talks

H. Lee and T. Colonius, “Polydisperse bubble dynamics during cavitation inception in turbulent shear flows,” 12th International Conference on Multiphase Flow, Toulouse, France, May 12-16, 2025

H. Lee and T. Colonius, “One-way and two-way coupled simulations of cavitation inception in turbulent shear flows with polydisperse bubbles,” 2024 American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, November 24-26, 2024

H. Lee, S. H. Bryngelson and T. Colonius, “Cavitation inception in a turbulent mixing layer,” 2023 American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, Washington DC, USA, November 19-21, 2023

H. Lee, S. Oh and H. Choi, “Machine-learning based optimization of the wing kinematics and geometry of a hovering flapping flight,” 2021 Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers Annual Conference, Gwangju, Korea, November 3-6, 2021

H. Lee, S. Oh and H. Choi, “Machine-learning based prediction of aerodynamic performance of a flapping wing in hover,” 2020 Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers Annual Conference, Online, December 16-18, 2020

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Honors and Awards

Allan Acosta Endowed Graduate Fellowship
California Institute of Technology, 2022

KISTI Supercomputing Award
Korean Society for Computational Fluids Engineering, 2021

Certificate of Commendation
Korea Maritime Transportation Safety Authority, 2020

Excellence Award in EDISON CFD Software Challenge
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, 2019

National Scholarship for Science and Engineering
Korea Student Aid Foundation, Spring 2016 - Fall 2019

Eminence Scholarship
Seoul National University, Fall 2014 - Fall 2015