Speaker Profile

Dr. Parimal Kopardekar (PK) serves as the Director of NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI).  In that capacity, he is responsible for exploring new trends and needs related to aeronautics.   He also serves as principal investigator for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM).  For UTM, he and the team won the Service to America Medals (known as Oscars of Federal Workforce) in Promising Innovation Category in 2018.  He was named in top 25 most influential people in commercial UAS industry in 2017.  He also won NASA exceptional technology medal in 2016.  He is co-author of over 50 publications with 3 best paper awards. He is passionate about airspace operations, autonomy, advanced air mobility, and digital manufacturing and supply chains in aeronautics.  He is co-editor-in-chief of Journal of Aerospace Operations and a fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

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