Prof. Holzinger began his faculty career in the Fall 2012 semester, and since has constructed a rigorous, externally funded, theory-to-hardware high-impact research program. His lab research draws from dynamics, controls, autonomy, and estimation disciplines, focusing on Space Domain Awarenes and Space Traffic Management.

Biography

Prof. Holzinger is an Associate Professor, H. Joseph Smead Faculty Fellow, and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in the Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Colorado Boulder. In this department he also serves as both the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies and the Associate Director for the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research (CCAR). His research focuses on theoretical and empirical aspects of space domain awareness, in which he has authored or co-authored over 100 conference and journal papers. Dr. Holzinger has made fundamental advances in low signal-to-noise ratio detection and tracking, telescope tasking to resolve hypotheses, lightcurve inversion, and reachability theory.

He joined Smead Aerospace in 2018 after six years on the Georgia Tech faculty, where he led construction of multiple Raven-Class Space Situational Awareness telescopes (GT- SORT), the Omnidirectional Space Situational Awareness (OmniSSA) Array, and served as Principal Investigator for an Air Force CubeSat program (RECONnaissance of Space Objects). Holzinger also previously worked at Northrop Grumman and Aerojet. In the summer of 2019 Prof. Holzinger hosted the AFRL Non-Resolvable SOI Workshop.

He is a recipient of an AFOSR Young Investigator Award and the National Academies Grainger Award, and is a National Academies selectee for the US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. Dr. Holzinger is an AIAA Associate Fellow, an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions in Aerospace and Electronic Systems, and is the Chair for the AAS Space Surveillance Technical Committee (AMOS Conference). Dr. Holzinger holds a PhD from the University of Colorado Boulder, and M.S. & B.S. degrees from the University of Washington.

Professional Experience

Academics

Selected Honors

  • 2020 - Advisor to ‘Best Student Paper’ selectee at the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference
  • 2019 - Elected to the Class of 2019 AIAA Associate Fellows
  • 2018 - H. Jospeh Smead Faculty Fellow
  • 2018 - Grainger Award, administered by the National Academy of Engineering
  • 2017 - Advisor to ‘Best Student Paper’ selectee at the IAA 1st International Conference on Space Situational Awareness (ICSSA)
  • 2017 - National Academy of Engineering US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium Selectee
  • 2017 - AFOSR Young Investigator Award
  • 2016 - AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics ‘Excellent Reviewer’
  • 2014 - ASEE Air Force Summer Faculty Fellow, AFRL/RDS
  • 2014 - AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics ‘Excellent Reviewer’
  • 2013 - Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 2011 - AIAA GNC Conference Graduate Student Paper Competition Finalist
  • 2008 - Northrop Grumman Space Technology Innovation Award (79 awards, 9,730 employees)
  • 2003 - George Snyder Undergraduate Astrobiology Fellow
  • 2003 - Mary Gates Research Scholar

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