Updated bio coming soon.
People Category: Panelist
Bruno SIlva
Dr. Bruno Silva is the ICAO Environment Officer on the Long-Term Aspirational Goal for International Aviation (LTAG) and on Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). Previously, he worked at ICAO on noise-related aspects of civil aviation. He has also worked at the Brazilian Civil Aviation Authority and at Embraer, always with a focus on the environmental impacts of aviation. Dr. Bruno holds a PhD from the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (Brazil).
Jason Merrett
Jason M Merret (B.S. ’99, M.S. -01, Ph.D., ’04 in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois) is a Clinical Associate Professor in Aerospace Engineering and Program Coordinator for Aerospace Systems Engineering. As part of his role here at Illinois he teaches the senior aircraft design sequence, graduate level aerospace systems engineering, and is faculty adviser for the Design, Build, Fly Team and Student Aircraft Builders. As Chair of the Engineering Design Council in the Grainger College of Engineering he coordinates funding a space allocation for a number of design teams spread throughout the College. His research focuses on experimental and computational applied aerodynamics and aircraft design.
Dr. Merret previously worked at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation as a Technical Specialist in the Preliminary Design Department. During his time there, he participated in the preliminary design of multiple products including the G650, G500, and G600 aircraft. On the G650 he also participated in a number of flight tests on low-speed and high-speed performance. In between programs, he helped conduct many supersonic subsonic, transonic, and wind tunnel test studies on engine inlets and aircraft configurations. During his time in Savannah GA, he taught at the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University/Gulfstream MMSE program.
Beyond Gulfstream, Dr. Merret is an Associate Fellow of AIAA, is an Aircraft Design Technical Committee member and Chair, and was an Organizing Committee member of the AIAA Design Build Fly competition.
Fabio Masci
Fabio Masci is a Lieutenant Colonel Pilot of the Italian Air Force who, among other duties, held the position of Chief of Flight Safety at the 5th Fighter Wing and the Tactical Leadership Program (TLP) in Florennes, Belgium and in Albacete, Spain.
During his career he was also awarded with several recognitions for reducing birdstrike events, including one from the U.S. Air Force thanks to the fact that after 1 year of operation with the F-16, the recorded incident rate was lowered to a level that took USAF itself several years to be reached.
Fabio flew more than 2,500 flight hours on F-104 and F-16 fighter jets, reaching the Instructor Pilot qualification on both of them (he was one of the first four F-16 Italian instructors).
Regarding Flight Safety, Fabio was involved in activities like:
▪ Investigation and drafting of final report for a flight accident involving two Italian F-16s near Sardinia;
▪ Italian Liaison Officer and member of the US/ITA Investigation Committee on the accident involving a USAF aircraft near Aviano Base;
▪ Called to provide support to operational activities during the Libyan crisis;
▪ Real operations: DELIBERATE FORGE, ALLIED FORCE, ODYSSEY DAWN, UNIFIED PROTECTOR.
Fabio left active duty in 2015 and together with others decided to capitalize on the gained field experience and founded THE EDGE COMPANY, a company born from the concept of the knowledge economy. He is strongly convinced that safety has an essential value to operations and, while progress cannot be stopped, there is a strong need to define new innovative models capable of creating harmony with the environment.
The Edge Company’s team is made of a heterogeneous group which includes AI specialists, software engineers, natural scientists, aviation experts. All of them have been working together to develop and continuously improve BCMS® Ventur system, under Fabio supervision that steers its development based on operational needs.
James L. Felder
James Felder is an Aerospace Engineer at the NASA Glenn Research Center.
He graduated from Arizona State University in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree (BSc) in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
He worked at the Garrett Turbine Engine Company, now Honeywell, from 1984-1988 in the areas of Aircraft and Advanced Engine Concepts.
Jim has been at the NASA Glenn Research Center since 1988 working in the areas of Electrical Hybrid and Turboelectric Aircraft Propulsion System Research, Advanced Aeropropulsion Systems Concept Development & Analysis, Lunar Lander System Engineering, In-space Chemical and Nuclear Rocket Propulsion Systems Analysis and was one of the principle architects and lead developers of the industry standard NPSS systems analysis program.
Gary Grimes
Gary Grimes, Director of Business Development Sustainability at World Energy, is focused on environmental issues, carbon neutrality, green energy innovation, and impacting positive change for corporate leaders committed to net-zero goals. In his role, Gary helps World Energy solve for carbon, innovate further, integrate new ways to drive down the carbon score and take the risk on the front side of technology.
Before World Energy, Gary worked for the oil refiner predecessors at Paramount for 27-years in various capacities, including as a representative to CEC and CARB. During this time, he played a significant role in developing the small refiner provisions of the CARB diesel and LCFS regulations.
Previously, Gary was a refining industry consultant with Pace Consultants in Houston for 10-years. Before that, he was a senior engineer for Rockwell International, where he contributed to a team that developed long-term disposal plans for high-level nuclear waste at the Hanford Project in Washington State.
Gary is a recognized expert in the green energy industry and is a frequent speaker and contributor on the business and government policies of renewable energy and jet fuel. Gary holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University.
Ruben G. Creus
Ruben Creus is the Chief Executive Officer of REVO ZERO, a zero-emissions technology company focused on the transportation industry. REVO ZERO is building a hydrogen refueling network in airports and municipalities using its Hydrogen-as-a-Service (HaaS) model. HaaS allows any airport to host REVO ZERO hydrogen dispensers at no cost to the airport as long as at least one dispenser is installed in a publicly accessible area of the airport. REVO ZERO also provides “airport-ready” zero-emissions vehicles under a vehicle-as-a-service model.
Creus has a background in industrial electronics and aviation that helped create a unique value proposition to start the hydrogen REVOlution in the aviation industry. As a natural entrepreneur, Creus has experience in start-ups, growth strategies, and executive management with roles in private and publicly traded companies. Creus has a degree in industrial electronics, a bachelor’s in business administration, and a master’s with a concentration in global business from the American Military University. In addition, Creus has designed avionics systems and participated in aeronautics projects over the last decade. On top, Creus is a passionate aviator and an aircraft pilot with hundreds of flights that over time provided a detailed understanding of the reality that airports face every day with their operations and the need to decarbonize the skies.
The passion for aviation and the need of airports to decarbonize the skies were the inspiration to find a way to remove complexity and bring an easy and simple HaaS solution to aviation for airports everywhere.
Björn Nagel
Dr. Björn Nagel is the director of the Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). His research is focused on digital engineering methods including MBSE and MDO enabling large and heterogeneous teams to model and optimize aviation as a system-of-systems. Pathways to climate-compatible air transport, co-design for industrialization and military air systems are his major fields of research.
Dr. Björn Nagel received his Diploma Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Technical University of Braunschweig in 2003, and Dr.-Ing. Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg in 2020.
In 2003, he joined the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as a Research Scientist at the Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems in Braunschweig. In 2007, he joined the then founded DLR Institute of Air Transportation Systems in Hamburg as head of the Integrated Aircraft Design Department. In 2017, he founded and became the director of the DLR Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics.
Max Arzberger
Max Arzberger received his Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Munich in 2017.
Since then, he dedicates his expertise in mechatronics and thermodynamics to European and institute internal hybrid electric aviation research projects as a research engineer at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
His current research focuses on the simulation and modeling of electric power train components as well as the combined performance of electric and turbo components.
Peter Wagner
Peter Wagner studied material science at the University of Leoben and continued on as a research assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratories. He returned to Europe for his PhD in fatigue modeling for CFRP at Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg and BMW Group. He then stayed with BMW to develop adhesive technologies for CFRP body-in-white structures as a project manager. Since 2020, he is with ISOVOLTA AG as Senior Manager Technology, where his task is to develop new materials and systems for niche applications. His focus is on non-organic materials and material systems with added functionality. Besides his career, Peter is obsessed with live-long learning, having just mastered the MIT Innovation Bootcamp. He has 3 patent files (2 pending) and was awarded IAAM Scientist award last year.