Professor Gouldin’s current research interests may be divided into several major areas - the fluid mechanics of combustion, combustor monitoring and control with intelligent sensors and waste combustion. His research includes both physical experiment and combustion modeling. A significant feature of the experimental work is the development and application of new experimental techniques such as new tomographic reconstruction methods, the application of color-center lasers for infrared combustion spectroscopy, laser imaging, and studies of premixed turbulent flames using crossed-plane imaging and stereo-particle image velocimetry. In the past he has also performed substantial work with laser Doppler velocimetry as well as Raman and Rayleigh scattering studies in premixed combustion systems. Currently, absorption and emission spectroscopy coupled with tomographic reconstruction is being developed for application to monitoring and feedback control of combustion systems such as incinerators and gas turbine combustors. Research on the incineration of chemical warfare agents is being pursued in collaboration with Professor Elizabeth Fisher and Professor Joseph Bozzelli of NJIT. Premixed turbulent flames are being studied using combined laser crossed-plane imaging and stereo-particle image velocimetry to quantify the velocity field and the topography of reaction sheets wrinkled and distorted by this flow field.

Gouldin joined the Cornell faculty in 1970 after completing his graduate studies. While at Cornell, he has conducted research on combustion and in related areas such as air pollution, energy efficiency, and waste incineration. During sabbatical leaves, he has conducted research at the Combustion Sciences Division of Sandia National Laboratories (1976-77) and its Combustion Research Facility (2003); he has been a Science and Engineering Research Council visiting fellow at Cambridge University in England, where he conducted research on turbulent combustion (1985-86); and has held the Post Rouge at the CNRS, in Orléans, France (1993). Gouldin is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a member of the Combustion Institute, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1970 he won the latter organization's Teetor Award.