Daniel Hesselius

  • Director, Flight Operations
  • DIVISION OF PUBLIC SAFETY

Dan Hesselius has been the Director of Flight Operations at CU Boulder since 2016. He is a native of Boulder and has been flying drones since he was 8 years old, winning 5 US national championships.

He is an Airline Transport Pilot, Certified Flight Instructor, Flight Engineer, and former Air Force pilot with experience in flight test. He has served numerous tours of duty in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He has also worked with the NTSB on numerous aircraft accident investigations.

Dan enjoys teaching new UAS pilots the many ways drones can shed light on new possibilities in their studies and research at CU Boulder. He collaborated on groundbreaking research on the thawing of Arctic permafrost, using a specially designed drone carrying instruments used to sample greenhouse gasses.