Faculty Focus

Clayton P. Byers
Donald L. McLagan Associate Professor of Engineering

As Clay Byers, Donald L. McLagan Associate Professor of Engineering, tells it, he had a typical middle-class childhood in the suburbs of Seattle. The son of a blue-collar union worker and a stay-at-home mother who moonlighted as a hair stylist, he was raised on stories about his grandfather’s exploits as an Alaskan bush pilot in the ’40s and ’50s.

“I grew up hearing my grandpa’s stories about near-death experiences, raising kids out in the middle of nowhere, and grandma on the porch with a gun to scare off bears,” Byers says. “It was like a classic Old West drama.”

When Byers was old enough to start thinking about college, joining the U.S. Air Force seemed like a natural decision. He already knew he wanted to do something technical, loved math and science, and harbored aspirations to follow his grandfather’s path and become a pilot. With academic scholarships and support from the Air Force, Byers became the first in his family to graduate from college, earning a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Washington State University in 2009.

Yet even before he finished his degree, Byers had realized that his dreams of flying had been supplanted by a different passion—academics. He recalls, “I ended up talking to an academic adviser, and I asked him, ‘How do I do what you do?’ ” But having already made a commitment to the military, Byers was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force and spent four years as a program manager at the Space and Missile Systems Center in Santa Barbara, California.

Then, despite not having undergraduate research or internship experience, Byers was admitted to Princeton University, an achievement he credits to his leadership development and management responsibilities in the military. While at Princeton, Byers became interested in fluid dynamics and turbulence and co-founded Tendo Technologies, a start-up focused on sensor manufacturing and precision flow measurement technology. He earned a Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering in 2018.

Following the suggestion of a mentor, Byers began looking into liberal arts colleges with strong engineering programs and applied for a position at Trinity. After a marathon of interviews and meetings in Hartford, Byers was immediately sold on Trinity. “I realized this is where I needed to be,” he recalls.

Byers’s intuition would be affirmed—since joining the faculty in 2018, his positive impact has been felt by many. In 2023, Byers received the Dean Arthur H. Hughes Award for Achievement in Teaching. “As evidenced by this award, Clay is deeply committed to undergraduate education and student research in a liberal arts environment,” says Lin Cheng, Karl W. Hallden Professor of Engineering and chair of the Engineering Department. “He has done an excellent job providing his students with high-quality classroom experiences and offers a strong research program outside the classroom that integrates and cultivates talented student researchers.”

Byers’s presence on the faculty also has been appreciated by his students. “Professor Byers has been one of my biggest inspirations to stay curious and keep learning,” says Sofia Iturbide ’26, an engineering major with a concentration in mechanical engineering. “I came to Trinity planning on majoring in biomedical engineering, but when I started working with him on a fluid-based project inspired by the human heart, I realized I was most drawn to fluid mechanics. His mentorship has been one of the best parts of my time at Trinity.”

Reflecting the evolution of his aspirations and academic interests, Byers hopes to encourage his students to follow their intuition in carving out their own paths. “You can make all the plans you want, and you should, but you never know what’s going to happen,” he says. “I had initially planned to become a pilot, but I realized I was more drawn toward academics. I thought I would study green energy and combustion in graduate school, but instead I discovered my interest in fluid dynamics and turbulence.”

Byers emphasizes that he never wants to take his teaching and mentorship responsibilities for granted. “It’s a privilege to have this position and to be able to work with our students,” he says. “They have a great deal of trust in us, and I don’t want to ever let them down.”

—Ian Rothenberg