Dr. Jay Feldman – NESC Academy Biography

Jay is a Senior Research Scientist & Materials Engineer in the Thermal Protection Systems and Materials branch at NASA Ames Research Center.

Before coming to NASA Ames Jay received his Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley working with Professor Don Tilley on the synthesis and study of silylene complexes, which are Metal-Silicon double bond species that until recently were rare and poorly understood.

At NASA Ames Research Center Jay has worked on the research and development of thermal protection materials across a wide spectrum of Technology Readiness Levels, including the Orion and Mars Science Laboratory heat shields and several others.

Jay is co-inventor of 3D Woven Thermal Protection Systems, which has led to two new heat shield materials on track to fly in the next few years, and is currently the technical lead and project manager for the 3D-MAT project which is delivering a new structural ablative material for use on the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle.