Parimal Kopardekar (PK)

PK has been conducting research, development, technology transfer, and management activities related to airspace operations for the past 33 years. Recently, PK served as the Senior Leader for Advanced Air Mobility Mission while also serving as the Director of NASA Aeronautics Research Institute. Prior to that he served as the Senior Technologist for Air Transportation Systems. He has coauthored over 60 publications and holds two pa-tents. He invented Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) which has been globally adopted as the construct to enable beyond visual line of sight operations of small drones. He is a recipient of AIAA’s Hap Arnold Award for Programmatic Excellence, Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal for Promising Innovation, and numerous NASA awards including invention of the year. He is a fellow of AIAA. He also serves as an adjunct faculty and teaches operations management, supply chain management, leadership, and innovation related courses.