Category: Education
Scott Palo received his MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from CU Boulder in 1990 and 1994, respectively. After a postdoc stint at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, he joined the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences as a research associate. From there, he progressed to assistant research professor (1999), assistant professor (2001), associate professor (2008) and professor (2013).
From 2014-17, Palo was associate dean for research in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Since 2010, he has consulted for Blue Canyon Technologies, a Boulder aerospace company founded by CU alumni in 2008 that designs, builds, tests, launches and operates small satellites. This led to an opportunity to start a new BCT subsidiary company, Blue Cubed Communications Corporation, where Palo now serves as president and CEO. BCT was recognized by Inc. magazine in 2016 as the No. 1 fastest growing small engineering company in the country.
Palo’s achievements as a CU alumnus pertain to his service and leadership at the department, college and campus levels at CU Boulder; his effectiveness in representing the campus to external constituencies; his activities at the national and international levels within his research community; and his work advancing teaching and research innovations in the engineering arena.
Palo has earned a reputation for promoting use of ground-based observing networks, space-based networks and small satellites. Thanks to in part to his advocacy, funding agencies are now buying into the concept of small satellites and networked observations. He has done much to advance small satellites as a viable means of making some of the key measurements needed to advance our understanding of near-Earth space.