People Category: Panelist

Sierra received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from San Diego State University. In her 12 years with Parker Chomerics, Sierra has had various technical sales responsibilities including managing customers, channel sales of multiple distributor fabricators, and manufacturers’ representatives. She primarily covers the aerospace and defense market but has solved complex issues for electromagnetic shielding, grounding, radar profile reduction, and thermal management across all market segments.

Cong Li

Dr. Cong Li is currently a Senior Power Electronics Engineer and EMC Lead at GE Aerospace Research, Niskayuna, NY, USA. His research interests include aviation high voltage, high power, high density wide band gap (WBG) power electronics systems, and EMI mitigation techniques. He is currently leading multiple flight demo EMC projects at GE Research. He has authored more than dozens of technical papers, and patent applications in the area of power electronics and EMC. He is a voting member of commercial aviation DO-160 EMI standard working group.

He has been given EMI webinars and tutorials at multiple IEEE conferences such as ECCE, APEC, EMC Symposium, etc. He is currently a Senior Member of IEEE, and Associate Editor at IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics. He is serving as secretary of IEEE-EMCS-SC5 Power Electronics EMC, as well as Technical Committee member of IEEE APEC, ECCE, ITEC, EATS conferences.

Michael J. Garrett

Michael Garrett is the Lead Test Engineer at the NASA Glenn Research Center EMI Laboratory. Prior to joining the EMI Lab, he worked as a test and development engineer on several NASA GRC space experiments and power converters for electric space propulsion and electric aircraft propulsion including the X-57 High Lift Motor Controller. He currently provides EMI/EMC technical support to NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration. Michael has a B.S. in electrical engineering from MIT and a M.S. in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University.

Katherine Sheets

Ms. Katherine Sheets is a Senior Research Electrical Engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Dayton, OH. She serves as the Director of the Modern Aircraft Device Demonstration and Characterization (MAD/DC) Laboratory centered around EMI/EMC research. The Lab is conducting research on All-Electric/ Hybrid/ Mechanical Propulsion systems for VTOL/STOL/ATTOL/HOTOL Aerospace operations, also Fly by Light technologies for Aerospace Systems. She maintains a large intern STEM program to seed retention of core technology areas in Aerospace development. She has over 20 years of experience in different basic science, applied research, and commercial application product development. Before joining AFRL, she worked for a defense contractor UES Inc., and before that she served in the US Navy. Ms. Katherine Sheets has received multiple honorable awards, multiple patents, and her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and at several national and international conferences.

Gaudy Bezos-O’Connor

Ms. Bezos-O’Connor has over 3 decades of project management and R&D experience delivering high-risk, high-pay-off aerospace solutions for NASA in partnership with the FAA, the aerospace industry and academia. A highly collaborative leader, she brings a solid history of success in public-private partnerships and innovative project management strategies. For the past decade and a half, Ms. Bezos-O’Connor has been at the forefront of enabling Sustainable Aviation through NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation Project, and Advanced Air Transport Technology Project and the FAA CLEEN Program. Currently she is the Project Manager of NASA’s aviation industry-led MW-class electrified powertrain flight demonstration project that could transform the aerospace industry and result in a dramatic reduction of aircraft emissions and enable sustainable aviation.

John Morgenstern

John Morgenstern brings 30+ years of experience in the development of supersonic aircraft focusing on design and methods to reduce the sonic boom. He was the shaped sonic boom lead on X-59 and held key roles in the N+2/N+3 supersonic studies, DARPA’s QSP, and much more. He has now come to Exosonic to lead our shaped boom development and bring low-boom technology to the commercial market.

Scott Cary

Scott Cary has more than 25 years of experience leading planning, finance, design, acquisition and construction teams for Port, Airport and Department of Defense infrastructure and facilities efforts, worldwide. For the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Mr Cary aligns port and airport programs lab-wide, integrating the unique expertise of a Department of Energy National Laboratory with aviation and maritime needs. He has a specific focus currently championing the Sustainable Aviation initiative which is assisting industry in accelerating adoption of new technologies worldwide. Clients currently include multiple large hub airports, the FAA, NASA, USAF, USSF, and industry collaboration across the Advance Air Mobility spectrum. Mr Cary is a former USAF officer, a licensed professional engineer and LEED accredited professional. He also spent much of his airport consulting career supporting airports in the Northwest Mountain Region.

Ben Murphy

Ben Murphy combines his passion for supersonic propulsion systems and the environment as Boom’s Vice President of Sustainability. Prior to this role, Ben’s career at Boom has been dedicated to propulsion system design, analysis, and testing, with an eye towards sustainability. He led operability and performance testing of the J85 engine used in XB-1, including testing using >50% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) blends and continues to lead Boom’s SAF and net zero strategies.

Ben represents Boom on the International Civil Aviation Organization Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (ICAO/CAEP) WG1 and WG3, supporting noise and emission standards. He also serves as the chair for the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) Supersonic Subcommittee, working with the broader industry to identify and promote common sustainability goals. Ben supports a number of supersonic research efforts including university efforts through the FAA’s Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT).

Before joining Boom in 2017, Ben worked at GE Aviation supporting flight tests and supersonic engine development, including engines used on the F-15, F-16, and new programs.

Ben holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. Outside of work, he can be found in the mountains, skiing and rock climbing.

Pat Anderson

Dr. Pat Anderson created the technology that enables the Urban Air Mobility future. He is Director of the Eagle Flight Research Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University specializing in: new vehicle concepts, advanced flight controls, and novel certification strategies. He led the world’s first piston gas/electric hybrid aircraft program and was recognized as Researcher of the Year. Dr. Anderson holds an airline transport pilot rating, is a flight Instructor, and is also rated as an airframe and power plant mechanic.