Pronouns: He/Him/His
Dr. Michael Gazarik joined Ball Aerospace in March of 2015 from NASA where he was the Associate Administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters. As the vice president of engineering, he provides overall strategic and operational leadership of engineering, program execution, and technology. He has over 30 years' experience in the design, development, and deployment of spaceflight systems. He has contributed to the development of technology with application to NASA's exploration, space operations and science missions. In creating the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters, he led NASA's rapid development and incorporation of transformative technologies that enable the Agency's missions, and address the Nation's aerospace community's most difficult challenges. Under his leadership, engineering at Ball Aerospace has seen marked increase in diversity at all levels of the organization. He served as an executive sponsor for the LGBTA and Latinx Ball Resource Networks and is a member of the Society of Women Engineers.
Earlier in his career, Gazarik served as the acting director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA's Langley Research Center and led programs developing an infrared camera for on-orbit shuttle inspections and entry, descent and landing instrumentation for the Curiosity and Perseverance Mars missions. Prior to joining NASA, Gazarik served as project manager for remote sensing instrument development the at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory. Gazarik also worked in the private sector on software and firmware development for commercial and government applications including telecommunications and signal processing.
He joined EMP in 2022 and has taught the Aerospace Program Management graduate course and has guest lectured for a variety of classes.
Gazarik earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987 and was a General Motors Scholar. He earned an M.S. in 1989 and a Ph.D. in 1997, both in electrical engineering, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the AIAA, is an industry board member for Astroscale U.S., and the Space Sciences Institute. He also serves on the NASA Advisory Committee for Technology and Innovation. Gazarik has received numerous awards, including AIAA Rocky Mountain Section’s Educator of the Year award, American Society of Engineering Management’s Engineering Manager of the Year, NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal, a Silver Snoopy Award, one of NASA's highest honors, and was selected as a Distinguished Alumni from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering in 2018. He was a leader in Scouts of America, coached and refereed youth lacrosse, and led the development of lacrosse programs in the Hampton Roads area.