Dr. Rainer Kurz is the Manager, Systems Analysis at Solar Turbines Incorporated, in San Diego, California. His organization is responsible for predicting compressor and gas turbine performance, for conducting application studies, and for field performance testing. Dr. Kurz attended the Universitaet der Bundeswehr in Hamburg, Germany, where he received the degree of a Dr.-Ing. in 1991.   He joined Solar Turbines in 1993.

Dr. Kurz  was elected ASME Fellow in 2003. He has authored numerous publications on turbomachinery related topics, with an emphasis on compressor applications, dynamic behavior, and gas turbine operation and degradation. He is the recipient of the 2013 ASME Industrial Gas Turbine Technology award.