Dr. Kathleen Howell – NESC Academy Biography

Professor Kathleen Connor Howell is presently the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics in the College of Engineering at Purdue University. In that capacity, she maintains an active research program that includes technical publications in support of Earth-based and interplanetary spacecraft missions, particularly in the areas of spacecraft trajectory design and optimization as well as maneuver strategies for transfers and on-orbit operations. As a principal investigator, she has obtained numerous grants and received various awards related to her research program including the Dirk Brouwer Award from the AAS. She was also honored with an invitation to deliver the prestigious Breakwell Memorial Lecture at the Astrodynamics Symposium of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) during the 2007 IAF Congress in Hyderabad, India. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses at Purdue and has received a number of local and national awards for excellence as an engineering educator including the Purdue University Murphy Award for undergraduate education. Dr. Howell is also active in a number of professional societies. Currently the Editor-in-Chief of the AAS Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, she is also a member of other editorial boards. She is both an AIAA and an AAS Fellow and is involved with various other organizations within the international aerospace and astrodynamics community. She is currently a member of the American Astronautical Society (AAS) Space Flight Mechanics Technical Committee as well as the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Astrodynamics Technical Committee. She earned her BS degree in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University; her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautical and Astronautical Sciences are from Stanford University.