Robert Braun Ph.D

Robert Braun Ph.D General Information

Biography

Dr. Robert Braun co-founded & served as Chief Technology Officer at Terminal Velocity Aerospace. An AIAA Fellow and member of the NAE, Braun is the director of AE's Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL) and the founding director of Georgia Tech's Center for Space Technology and Research (C-STAR). In 2010 and 2011, Braun served as NASA's chief technologist. From 1989 to 2003, he served as a member of the technical staff of the NASA Langley Research Center. Braun has authored or co-authored more than 250 technical papers in the fields of atmospheric flight dynamics, planetary exploration, multidisciplinary design optimization, and systems engineering, including more than 50 papers in the JSR. Braun's work in space systems includes serving on the Mars Pathfinder entry, descent and landing team from 1992 to 1997. He has also served on the Mars Microprobe, Mars Sample Return and Mars Surveyor 2001 flight projects. Since 2005, Braun has advanced on wide variety of entry, descent and landing technologies, including guidance strategies, inflatable aerodynamic decelerators,, and supersonic retropropulsion. Braun's editorial contributions include serving as an associate editor for the JSR from 2009 to 2010, as well as serving as a peer reviewer for the JSR, the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, and the AAS Journal of Astronautical Sciences. Braun's previous AIAA service includes membership on AIAA's Space Systems Technical Committee, the Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Technical Committee and the Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Technical Committee. He is presently a member of the Executive Steering Committee for the AIAA Science and Technology Forum.Braun's past honors include the 2012 Alvin Seiff Memorial Award, the 1999 Lawrence Sperry Award and the 2011 von Karman Lectureship in Astronautics.