People Category: AIAA SciTech Forum 2022

Chris Hernandez

Chris recently retired from a 42-year career in aerospace and defense. His last position was with Northrop Grumman where he led the Research, Technology, and Engineering organization for their Aerospace Systems Sector.

He had served in many capacities over his career including, Chief Engineer for the B2 Bomber, Chief technology Officer, General Manager of the Unmanned Systems Business and Program management of a variety of programs including fighters, bombers, weapons, radars and ISR platforms.

Prior to Northrop Grumman he worked for Rockwell International on the NASA Space shuttle program and advanced launch vehicle concepts.

Hernandez earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from California State University, Long Beach and a master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He is a current member and former chair of the CSULB Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and an active member and former chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association Technical Operations Council. He is also presently on the executive Steering Committee for AIAA Aviation Conference. Since 2001, He has served on the board of directors of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation one of the largest nonprofit social services organization in the U.S. Lastly, he is the president of “Christopher’s Way”, named after his oldest son, a nonprofit chartered to bring awareness to a learning disability called Dysgraphia.

Laurette Lahey

Laurette Lahey is Boeing’s Functional Chief Engineer for Flight Engineering; ensuring technical excellence in Flight Engineering disciplines across the enterprise. Lahey also leads the Flight and Vehicle Technology team for Boeing Research and Technology (BR&T). Lahey is responsible for technology strategy, research and development in Aerosciences, Guidance/ Navigation/ Control & Autonomy, Energy & Propulsion Systems, and Integrated Vehicle Technologies.

Previously, Lahey served as the Senior Chief Engineer for Flight and Controls for Boeing Defense, Space and Security responsible for ensuring the technical integrity of all BDS products and services involving flight sciences and control system applications. With over three decades of senior leadership and technical experience, Lahey began her career as an aerodynamics engineer for Boeing Military Aircraft. She subsequently held positions with increasing responsibilities with roles spanning aircraft stability and control, aircraft configuration synthesis, propulsion system integration, airworthiness, mishap investigation and system safety.

Lahey has a bachelor of science in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Oklahoma State University where she has served on the Industrial Advisory Board for the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Lahey is also an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and has membership in SAE International and the Society of Women Engineers.

Philippe Bonnefoy

Dr. Bonnefoy is Founder and Principal at BlueSky. He focuses on analytics and strategy consulting in Aviation, Energy, and Environment. He is co-leading a number of groups within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) Working Group on CORSIA (WG4) and the Long-Term Aspirational Goal Task Force (LTAG-TG) and contributing to several ICAO CAEP groups. He is the former co-rapporteur of the ICAO CAEP Modeling and Database Group (MDG).

Dr. Bonnefoy has over 18 years of experience in data and decision analytics in the air transportation industry. He started and led the Data and Decision Science group at Booz Allen Hamilton in Aviation, Energy, and Environment. He was also a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he conducted research in several areas related to; air transportation, energy, and the environment. At MIT, he lectured on flight vehicle engineering, airport development and operations, and the mitigation of environmental impacts of aviation. He also worked and consulted for aviation operators and startups as well as private equity firms.

Dr. Bonnefoy holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Systems and a Master of Science in Aeronautics & Astronautics both from MIT and a bachelor in Aerospace Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal in Canada. Dr. Bonnefoy received an award as part of a group Superior Honor Award by the U.S. State Department in 2016 and the 2010 Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award by the Federal Aviation Administration. He also holds a private pilot license with instrument and seaplane ratings.

Dana (Keoki) Jackson

Keoki Jackson is Senior Vice President and General Manager, MITRE National Security Sector, responsible for the strategic growth and execution of programs supporting Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, and the Intelligence Community. He also leads the National Security Engineering Center. Jackson joined MITRE after more than two decades at Lockheed Martin, where he influenced the design, development, deployment, and flight operation of major national security spacecraft and programs. Before joining Lockheed Martin, Jackson was a NASA research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the field of human adaptation to the space environment. Jackson is a Fellow of the United Kingdom Royal Aeronautical Society and AIAA. He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT and completed the Stanford Executive Program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Stephen Frick

Stephen Frick is the Director of Hypersonics and Advanced Materials, Lockheed Martin Space Advanced Technology Center. In this role he is responsible for developing future discriminating capabilities in the areas of advanced materials, advanced electronics, advanced manufacturing, and hypersonic mission development for LM Space products.

Mr. Frick joins Lockheed Martin after a nineteen-year career as a NASA Astronaut. He has flown two space missions on the Shuttle Atlantis, as pilot on mission STS-110 in 2002 and mission commander on STS-122, for a total of over 565 hours in space. Other key positions in support of human spaceflight included Astronaut Office Exploration Branch Chief, Orion Program Flight Crew Testing Lead, and the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School Smith/McCool NASA Chair Professor.

A 1986 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he served as a naval aviator, strike fighter pilot, and test pilot retiring as a Captain in 2010.  He has logged more than 4,300 flight hours in 38 different aircraft, including 26 combat missions and over 370 carrier landings. His awards include the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V, and Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

Mr. Frick has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, and an MS in Aeronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School.  He is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

Brian Yutko

Brian Yutko is the VP & Chief Engineer for Sustainability and Future Mobility at Boeing, leading a team that ensures the company’s technical expertise and market leadership in sustainability technologies, as well as emerging, advanced aerial mobility applications. Working closely with Boeing’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, the company’s Chief Engineer, and its Research and Technology leadership, Brian is responsible for leading and integrating the efforts of diverse teams that are improving the sustainability of Boeing’s products and services via innovations in electrification, energy storage, aircraft design, operational efficiency and autonomy. Brian also oversees a portfolio of advanced aerial mobility products and services that are enabled by these new technologies, including Boeing’s joint ventures with Wisk, developer of an all-electric, self-flying air taxi and SkyGrid, producer of airspace integration software. He is also a member of Wisk’s board of directors.

Prior to this role, Brian was Chief Technologist for Boeing NeXt, a business division that was devoted to building and incubating new mobility systems and the associated ecosystem. His work leveraged advances in autonomy, electrification, and other emerging technologies to build the next generation of safe aircraft systems. He also served as Chief Strategy Officer for Boeing subsidiary, Aurora Flight Sciences, which is a leader in rapid prototyping and the development of advanced autonomous aircraft systems.

Prior to joining Boeing, Brian was Senior Vice President of Programs at Aurora Flight Sciences. Previous to this role and during Boeing’s acquisition of Aurora, he served as the company’s Vice President of Research and Technology. Throughout his

multiple roles at Aurora, he held P&L responsibility, led Research and Development, and also served as a program manager and principal investigator for various rapid prototyping and autonomous technology development programs. He has experience with both commercial and defense applications of advanced aircraft technology, as well as the full lifecycle of aerospace R&D programs.

Prior to joining Aurora, Brian was a Research Engineer and Postdoctoral Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his research focused on the simultaneous design and optimization of aircraft and the complex systems in which they operate. He built software tools that use machine learning to rapidly predict aircraft performance in large-scale system simulations for the purpose of assessing and reducing the environmental impact of aviation. Prior to MIT, Yutko worked as a mechanical design engineer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in a group that designed, fabricated, and deployed hardware for the Space Shuttle, space launch vehicles, and ground support equipment.

Brian earned a Ph.D. and a Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He is an avid pilot, motorcycle rider, runner, rock climber, and traveler.

Ella Atkins

Dr. Ella Atkins is a Professor in the University of Michigan’s Aerospace Engineering Department where she directs the Autonomous Aerospace Systems (A2SYS) Lab and is Associate Director of the Robotics Institute. Dr. Atkins holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan. She is an AIAA Fellow, private pilot, and Part 107 UAS pilot. She served on the National Academy’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and the Institute for Defense Analysis Defense Science Studies Group. She has served on several National Academy study committees and co-authored study reports including Advancing Aerial Mobility A National Blueprint (2020) and Autonomy Research for Civil Aviation Toward a New Era of Flight (2014). Dr. Atkins has built a research program in decision-making and control to assure safe contingency management in manned and unmanned Aerospace applications. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems (JAIS) and a member of the 2020-2021 AIAA Aviation Conference Executive Steering Committee.

R. John Hansman

R. John Hansman is the T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics MIT, where he is the Director of the MIT International Center for Air Transportation.  He conducts research in the application of information technology in operational aerospace systems.  Dr. Hansman holds 6 patents and has authored over 250 technical publications.  He has over 5800 hours of pilot in-command time in airplanes, helicopters and sailplanes including meteorological, production and engineering flight test experience.  Professor Hansman chairs the US Federal Aviation Administration Research Engineering & Development Advisory Committee (REDAC) as well as other national and international advisory committees. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), is a Fellow of the AIAA and has received numerous awards including the AIAA Dryden Lectureship in Aeronautics Research, the ATCA Kriske Air Traffic Award, a Laurel from Aviation Week & Space Technology, and the FAA Excellence in Aviation Award.

Official Bio

Michael Gazarik

Dr. Mike Gazarik has over 30 years of experience in the design, development, and deployment of spaceflight systems. Currently he serves as the Faculty Director of the Engineering Management Program for the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado. He is also a part-time Staff Member at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. He led the creation of the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters and served as the first Associate Administrator championing NASA’s rapid development and incorporation of transformative technologies that enable the Agency’s missions and address the Nation’s aerospace community’s most difficult challenges. Joining Ball Aerospace in 2015, Mike served over 8 years as the Vice President of Engineering providing overall strategic and operational leadership of engineering, program execution, and technology. He led the organization through an accelerated growth period doubling the size of the organization and company in five years.

Earlier in his career, Gazarik served as the acting director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s Langley Research Center and led programs developing an infrared camera for on-orbit shuttle inspections and entry, descent and landing instrumentation for the Curiosity and Perseverance mars missions. Prior to joining NASA, Gazarik served as project manager for the Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory. Gazarik also worked in the private sector on software and firmware development for commercial and government applications including telecommunications and signal processing.

Gazarik understands that diverse teams develop better solutions. Under his leadership, engineering at Ball Aerospace saw a marked increase in diversity at all levels of the organization. He served as an executive sponsor for the LGBTA and Latinx Ball Resource Networks.

Gazarik earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987 and was a General Motors Scholar. He earned an M.S. in 1989 and a Ph.D. in 1997, both in electrical engineering, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the AIAA and former Chair of the AIAA Corporate Strategic Committee. He is a member of the Engineering Advisory Board for the University of Colorado’s Engineering College and the Engineering Management Program. Gazarik was elected to the AIAA Board of Trustees in 2025, serves as a board member for the Space Sciences Institute, and formerly for Astroscale U.S., and Astrobotic Technology Inc. He also serves on the NASA Advisory Committee for Technology and Innovation and supported the Department of Defense Study on STEM and the Defense Industrial Base.

Gazarik has received numerous awards, including NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal, a Silver Snoopy Award, one of NASA’s highest honors, received the 2023 AIAA Rocky Mountain Section Educator of the Year award, selected as the 2023 Engineering Manager of the Year by the American Society of Engineering Management, and was selected as a Distinguished Alumni from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering in 2018. He was a leader in Boy Scouts of America, coached and refereed youth lacrosse, and led the development of lacrosse programs in the Hampton Roads area.