Penina Axelrad is an American aerospace engineer known for her research on satellite orbital dynamics and the Global Positioning System. She is Joseph T. Negler Professor in the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research and the Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences department at the University of Colorado. [1]
Axelrad earned bachelor's and master's degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1985 and 1986 respectively. [1] At MIT, she was also captain of the university's fencing team. [2] She completed her Ph.D. at Stanford University in 1991, [1] working on the plans for Gravity Probe B [3] under the supervision of Bradford Parkinson. [4]
After continuing at Stanford for a year as a lecturer, while working in industry at Stanford Telecommunications Corp., she moved to the University of Colorado in 1992 as an assistant professor. She was promoted to full professor in 2005 and chaired the department of aerospace engineering sciences from 2012 to 2017. [1] Axelrad is a member of the GPS Advisory Board [5] and of the NASA Advisory Council. [6] She served as president of the Institute of Navigation for 2004–2005. [3]
Axelrad was the winner of the Lawrence Sperry Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1996. [1] The Institute of Navigation gave her their Tycho Brahe Award in 2002 "for her contributions to the science of space navigation, guidance, and control", [4] and their Johannes Kepler Award in 2009, "for her continued contributions in the field of satellite navigation; dedication to the education of future generations of navigation engineers; and extensive service to professional societies including The Institute of Navigation". [7] Women in Aerospace gave Axelrad their Aerospace Educator Award in 2015 "for her work as an instrumental leader in the development of hands-on curricula in the aerospace engineering program at the University of Colorado, as well as her devotion to mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, particularly women and underrepresented groups". [8]
She was named as a Fellow of the Institute of Navigation in 2004 "her continuing contributions to research and graduate and undergraduate education in the fields of dynamics and systems, aerospace electronics and communications, and GPS technology", [9] and named a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2008. [1] She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2019, "for analysis of multipath GPS signals to improve satellite navigation and new approaches to remote sensing". [10]
The University of Colorado gave Axelrad the Joseph T. Negler Professorship in 2018. [3]
Stephen Kern "Steve" Robinson is an American former NASA astronaut.
Bradford Parkinson is an American engineer and inventor, retired United States Air Force Colonel and Emeritus Professor at Stanford University. He is best known as the lead architect, advocate and developer, with early contributions from Ivan Getting and Roger Easton, of the Air Force NAVSTAR program, better known as Global Positioning System.
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is similar, but deals with the electronics side of aerospace engineering.
Kathleen Connor Howell is an American aerospace engineer known for her contributions to dynamical systems theory applied to spacecraft trajectory design which led to the use of halo orbit in multiple NASA space missions. She is currently the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor at Purdue University in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In acknowledgment of her many achievements, Discover magazine recognized her in 2002 as one of the 50 most important women in science.
Robert David Braun is an American aerospace engineer and academic. He has served as the dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, the David and Andrew Lewis Professor of Space Technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the NASA Chief Technologist. Currently, Dr. Braun is the Space Sector Head at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
Wanda M. Austin is an American aerospace engineer. She is a former president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation. She was both the first woman, and the first African-American, to hold this position. Austin also served as interim president for the University of Southern California, following the resignation of C. L. Max Nikias. She was both the first woman, and the first African-American, to hold this position.
John L. Junkins is an American academic and a distinguished professor of aerospace engineering in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University specializing in spacecraft navigation, guidance, dynamics, and control. He holds the Royce E. Wisenbaker Endowed Chair at Texas A&M University and also serves as the Founding Director of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University, since its founding in December 2010. On November 24, 2020, Junkins was announced as the interim President of Texas A&M University starting January 2021. He was the interim president until May 31, 2021.
Yvonne Madelaine Brill was a Canadian American rocket and jet propulsion engineer. She is responsible for inventing the Electrothermal Hydrazine Thruster (EHT/Resistojet), a fuel-efficient rocket thruster that keeps today’s satellites in orbit, and holds a patent for its invention. During her career she was involved in a broad range of national space programs in the United States, including NASA and the International Maritime Satellite Organization.
Aprille Joy Ericsson is an American aerospace engineer currently serving as the assistant secretary of defense for science and technology. Ericsson is the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Howard University and the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in engineering at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
George Henry Born was an American aerospace engineer, Distinguished Professor, founder and Director Emeritus of the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR) at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is known for his work in satellite navigation and precise orbit determination. He worked on various missions while at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as well as navigation support for the Apollo program in the late 1960s while at Johnson Space Center.
Lisa Hardaway (1966–2017) was an American aerospace engineer and program manager for an instrument on the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto and Beyond. Among her awards, she was named Engineer of the Year for 2015–2016 by the Colorado American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
James Julius Spilker Jr. was an American engineer and a consulting professor in the aeronautics and astronautics department at Stanford University. He was one of the principal architects of the Global Positioning System (GPS). He was the co-founder of the space communications company Stanford Telecommunications, and later was the executive chairman of AOSense Inc., Sunnyvale, CA.
Debbie Senesky is an associate professor of Aeronautics at Stanford University. She is the principal investigator of the EXtreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory, and studies nanomaterials in extreme environments.
Kristine Marie Larson is an American academic. She is Emeritus Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research considers the development of algorithms for high-precision Global Positioning System (GPS) data analysis. She was the first to demonstrate that GPS could be used to detect seismic waves. She was awarded the 2015 European Geosciences Union Christiaan Huygens Medal.
The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is a department within the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, providing aerospace education and research. Housed primarily in the Aerospace Engineering Sciences building on the university's East Campus in Boulder, it awards baccalaureate, masters, and PhD degrees, as well as certificates, graduating approximately 225 students annually. The Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is ranked 10th in the nation in both undergraduate and graduate aerospace engineering education among public universities by US News & World Report.
Dorota A. Grejner-Brzezińska is a Polish-American geodetic engineer known for her work on the Global Positioning System. She is University Distinguished Professor and Lowber B. Strange Endowed Chair in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering at Ohio State University, and director of the Satellite Positioning and Inertial Navigation at Ohio State, where she was also the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering and senior associate vice president for research of the university. She current serves as Vice President of the Office of Knowledge Enterprise, part of Ohio State University's Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge.
Helen Louise Reed is an American aerospace engineer. Her research interests include hypersonics, energy efficient aircraft, laminar–turbulent transition, and small satellite design. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Physical Society, and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
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Maya Nasr is a Lebanese postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University. She previously received her BS'18, MS'21, and PhD'23 in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research areas include aerospace engineering and international space law, policy, and politics.
Professor Kerri L. Cahoy is an electrical and aerospace engineer and a professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. She is also the co-founder of laser communications firm SpaceRake. Cahoy is the leader of the Space Telecommunications, Astronomy and Radiation Laboratory (STAR) at MIT, and she is most well known for her research in studying planetary atmospheres and exoplanet atmospheres along with her technology demonstration work on nanosatellites.
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