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Dr. Siva S. Banda, member of the Dean’s Advisory Board, is a Chief Scientist, Aerospace Systems Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He serves as the principal scientific and technical advisor to the director and is the primary authority for the technical content of the directorate’s science and technology portfolio. The directorate leads and conducts research, exploratory and advanced development in aerospace platforms, propulsion systems for both atmospheric and space flight, platform integration, and flight demonstration. Technology thrusts in the directorate include: air-breathing, missile, rocket, electric, and space propulsion; hypersonic flight and space access; autonomous air vehicles; advanced flight control; sustainment of aircraft, engines, missiles and rockets; power and thermal management; air vehicle structures and aerodynamics; energy efficient aircraft; and the development of alternative fuels and energy resource management for the Air Force. As Chief Scientist, Dr. Banda ensures that the total technical research program of the directorate is meeting national, Department of Defense, Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command and AFRL’s objectives in core technical areas.

Banda joined the Flight Dynamics Laboratory in 1981 as an aerospace research engineer in the Flight Controls Division. His multi-faceted technical activities at the AFRL and its predecessors have included serving as an in-house researcher, task team leader, group leader, program manager, branch chief, consultant, mentor and technical leader for basic research in flight control systems. He has made pioneering and lasting contributions to robust multivariable control theory, reconfigurable flight control, adaptive guidance and control for hypersonic and reusable space access vehicles, and cooperative control, which he has aggressively advocated as the key to making autonomously-operating unmanned air vehicles an integral part of tomorrow’s airspace.

The author of over 200 technical papers, reports and books, two patents, and more than 120 invited lectures worldwide, Dr. Banda’s personal technical career focuses on advancing the frontiers of control science and ensuring that the US Air Force and aerospace industry possess the cutting-edge flight control solutions essential to fielding revolutionary air and space platforms for both military and commercial applications. He was appointed the USAF Senior Scientist for Control Theory in 1999, the Air Vehicles Chief Scientist in 2011, and the Aerospace Systems Chief Scientist in 2012.

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