People Category: Webinars

Jason Maroothynaden

With 20 years in aerospace and venture, Jason started his career as a bio-instrumentation engineer at European Space Agency (ESA).  He left space and became an internationally experienced venture builder and capital raiser. He came back to Europe and space as business broker at ESA specialising in access to finance, particularly working in partnership with Venture Capital. He is a start-up mentor, company board member, and Investor. Is a member of the Societies Space specialist group.  Currently UK Managing Director for HE Space Operations where he is developing its UK business focused on providing manpower to the space sector.

Robert Afzal

Dr. Robert Afzal is a Lockheed Martin senior fellow in Laser and Sensor Systems. In this role, he oversees the technical development of lasers and laser applications, and is an architect of the roadmap that will ultimately see the maturity of laser weapons systems. He is also the principal Investigator on the ALADIN program and is a lead point of contact on infrared countermeasures, directed energy, and active imaging.

Tony Favaloro

Tony Favaloro graduated with a PhD from Purdue University and continued as a Research Scientist in the Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center. Tony’s background provides expertise in nonlinear materials, nonlinear FEA, process simulation, and connected toolchains. Now, as a Solutions Architect in the Structures Center of Excellence at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, he is applying this expertise towards integrating modern data science and machine learning techniques into structural analysis to enable synergistic workflows.

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Sonya T. Smith

Sonya T. Smith obtained her Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia (UVA) in 1995 and was the first African-American woman to do so. She joined the Howard University faculty in 1995 and is the first tenured female faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. At Howard University she established the Applied Fluids-Thermal Engineering Research Laboratory (@FTERLab), an interdisciplinary theoretical and computational research group. She has received support for her research from NSF, NIH, NASA, DoD, and industry.

Smith was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021. Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Honor Society also elected her to be its president in FY21. She was an MLK Visiting Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT from 2021 to 2022. Smith is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and an Associate Fellow of AIAA. The Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) elected her as president in FY22. She also belongs to the American Physical Society (APS), the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).

As an experienced scientist and engineer, Smith is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. She leads Howard University’s NSF ADVANCE-IT award (HU ADVANCE-IT). ADVANCE-IT aims to solve the institutional and national problem of Advancement and Leadership of Women in STEM. She is a long-time board member and former President of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). WEPAN is a leading champion in North America for advancing women’s inclusion in engineering. Smith is also a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group and the ASME Foundation Board. Her personal goal is to mentor and support young STEM faculty/professionals, especially those who are traditionally underrepresented.

Nelson Pedreiro

Dr. Nelson Pedreiro is the Vice President of the Advanced Technology Center (ATC) at Lockheed Martin Space. In this role, he is responsible for leading an organization of approximately 500 scientists and engineers in advancing space science and technology. The ATC mission is to create novel capabilities for our nation and customers and technology discriminators for Lockheed Martin. Pursuing that goal, Dr. Pedreiro
leads the ATC’s world-class team across its rich technical portfolio to deliver impactful innovation and growing the organization’s capabilities and reputation as a R&D center of excellence. The ATC has broad areas of expertise, including: Space sciences and instrumentation; phenomenology and sensors; optics and electro-optics; telecommunications and photonics; guidance, navigation and control; modeling, simulation and information sciences; thermal sciences; and materials and nanotechnology.

Since joining Lockheed Martin in 1996 as a Research Scientist, Dr. Pedreiro progressed through technical and organizational leadership roles. Prior to his current role, Dr. Pedreiro was the Chief Engineer for the Strategic and Missile Defense (SMD) line of business, leading a collaborative team of cross-functional engineers across all programs focused on designing, developing, integrating and delivering flight missile systems across the SMD suite of programs. In that role, Dr. Pedreiro engaged in architecture definition, technology development and technical trades for systems that include strategic missiles, advanced interceptors, directed energy and hypersonic systems. Prior to that role, Dr. Pedreiro was the Science and Technology Director at the ATC, with responsibilities for technology development and transition into space
products.

Dr. Pedreiro completed post-doctoral studies at Stanford University and has a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University.