Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz @franklinchangd is Chairman and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company a US firm developing advanced plasma rocket technology and applications in sustainable energy with operations in Webster, Texas and Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Dr. Chang Díaz founded Ad Astra in 2005, after a 25-year career as a NASA astronaut. A veteran of 7 space missions, he has logged over 1,600 hours in space, including 19 hours in three space walks. In 1994, in conjunction with astronaut training at NASA, he founded and directed the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory (ASPL) at the Johnson Space Center to develop the physics of the VASIMR® rocket engine. Dr. Chang Díaz holds a PhD degree in applied plasma physics from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut. He is Adjunct Professor of Physics at Rice University and the University of Houston.
People Category: AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum 2019
Tory Bruno
Alan Newby
Alan is the Director of Aerospace Technology and Future Programmes at Rolls-Royce. In this role he is responsible for new product development across the aerospace businesses and the integration of product and technology strategy. He also has accountability for the formulation and the delivery of the supporting research and technology programmes many of which involve global collaborations. Prior to this he held a number of engineering leadership roles throughout the product lifecycle both in the UK and overseas. These included Chief Engineer for Civil Future Programmes, Engineering Director Rolls-Royce Deutschland based in Berlin, Chief Engineer on the collaborative IAE V2500 and Chief Performance Engineer Trent 500/700/900. He joined Rolls-Royce in 1987 having worked on steam turbine design with NEI Parsons in Newcastle. Alan is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is also Chairman of the Derby and Hucknall Branch of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust and a director of the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI).
John Nairus
Chief Engineer
Power & Control Division
Air Force Research Laboratory
John has 32 years of service with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Aerospace Systems Directorate having served in various capacities in support of the More Electric Aircraft Initiative before becoming the Power & Control Division’s Chief Engineer. He also continues to serve as an Electrical and Thermal Subject Matter Expert in the F-35 Program Office. John earned his Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dayton, is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio, and an AIAA Associate Fellow. John has chaired both IAPG and the Energy & Power Community of Interest and also served on the National Academies Low Carbon Aviation Committee studying hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion.
Hao Huang
Dr. Hao Huang is the Technology Chief of GE Aviation—Electrical Power. He is responsible for generating the technical directions, innovation strategies, and multi-generation product roadmaps for the GE aircraft electrical power division. He has been constantly leading and contributing innovations and inventions of aircraft electrical power technologies.
Dr. Huang is an IEEE fellow and SAE fellow. He received his Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA in 1987. He has 30 years of experience in Aircraft Electrical Power Systems, Power Generations, Engine Starting, Power Electronics and Controls, and Electric Vehicle Drives. He has had US 63 patents including pending and multiple technical publications in the above-mentioned areas.
Dr. Hao Huang is the winner of 2019 IEEE Transportation Technologies Award.
Daniel Herman
Lisa Teague
After obtaining bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from NC State University, Lisa Teague joined Detroit Diesel Allison (now Rolls-Royce Corporation) in Indianapolis in 1983. From her first role as a stress analyst, she moved on to a variety of technical and managerial positions in Design and Project Engineering. She and her family spent 2 years in the United Kingdom on assignment with Rolls-Royce, where she performed a coordination role in Engineering. In her current role as Head, Research & Technology – Indianapolis, she is responsible for the planning and execution of Research &Technology activities in Indianapolis, coordinating with global counterparts in the UK and Germany. Through a network of technology specialists, her group matures technologies for future gas turbine engine products and services. Her group also leads coordination of university research activities, and she is also involved in STEM outreach. Lisa is a member of ASME and AIAA.
Mung Chiang
Mung Chiang is the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering and the Roscoe H. George Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He was previously the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, where he also served as Director of Keller Center in Innovation in Engineering Education and the inaugural Chairman of Princeton Entrepreneurship Council. His research received the 2013 Alan T. Waterman Award, the highest honor to young scientists and engineers in the U.S. His online course and books, “Networked Life” and “The Power of Networks,” reached over 250,000 students since 2012. He founded the Princeton EDGE Lab in 2009, which bridges the theory-practice gap in edge networking research by spanning from proofs to prototypes. He co-founded several startup companies in mobile, big data and IoT areas, and co-founded the global nonprofit Open Fog Consortium.