Awards & Recognition
★Elected to the National Academy of Engineers (2026) - youngest MIT alumnus by a decade
★AIAA F.E. Newbold Award (2023) for outstanding creative contributions to powered lift flight
★IEEE Control Systems Technology Award (2021, co-recipient with Yoshiaki Kuwata)
★National Academy of Engineering Gilbreth Lectureship (2017)
★IEEE Spectrum Emerging Technology Award (2016, group award)
★National Space Society Space Pioneer Award (2016, group award)
★MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (2015)
Notable Facts
→Led the team that developed precision landing technology for SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, achieving the world's first landing and recovery of an orbital-class booster stage in December 2015
→Currently responsible for Entry, Descent and Landing of SpaceX's Starship rocket, designed to send 100+ tonnes to orbit and eventually humans to Mars
→Highly cited researcher with 4,500+ academic citations and 52 publications in guidance, navigation, and control
→Co-invented the G-FOLD algorithm for precision landing on Mars while at NASA JPL
→PhD from MIT in Guidance, Navigation and Control, previously worked at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
→British engineer who studied at University of Cambridge and MIT
→Has given conference presentations and appeared on The Science Channel