David W. Miller is an American aerospace engineer who is the current

Jerome Hunsaker Jerome Clarke Hunsaker (August 26, 1886 – September 10, 1984) was an American naval officer and aeronautical engineer, born in Creston, Iowa, and educated at the U.S. Naval Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His work with Gu ...

Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

and an elected Fellow of the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecra ...

since 2015. He is currently on a leave of absence from MIT to be the Technologist for the Astronomy and Physics Directorate at NASA's

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

. Previously, he served three years as a VP and the Chief Technology Officer to

The Aerospace Corporation The Aerospace Corporation is an American nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). The corporation provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil ...

. He has worked on multiple NASA projects and served as

NASA chief technologist The chief technologist is the most senior technology position at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The chief technologist serves as the principal advisor to the NASA Administrator in technology policy and programs, and as ...

NASA headquarters The Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building at 300 E Street SW in Washington, D.C. houses NASA leadership who provide overall guidance and direction to the US government executive branch agency NASA, under the leadership of the NASA administ ...

in Washington, DC.

Early life and education

Miller received both undergraduate and graduate degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering at MIT.

MIT professor

After graduation in 1988, Miller became a research associate for MIT's Aero/Astro. He was promoted to principal research scientist and assistant professor before becoming an associate professor in 1997. He flew experiments on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

, including

STS-48 STS-48 was a Space Shuttle mission that launched on September 12, 1991, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The orbiter was on her 13th flight. The primary payload was the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). The mission landed on Septe ...

STS-62 STS-62 was a Space Shuttle program mission flown aboard . The primary payloads were the USMP-02 microgravity experiments package and the OAST-2 engineering and technology payload, both in the orbiter's cargo bay. The two-week mission also featu ...

, and

STS-67 STS-67 was a human spaceflight mission using that launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on March 2, 1995. Crew Crew seat assignments Mission highlights Ultraviolet Imaging Experiments Astro-2 was the second dedicated Spacelab ...

missions. He is faculty for and the former director of the Space Systems Laboratory (MIT). Much of the research has focused on reconfigurable spacecraft concepts and on-orbit operations. The laboratory has many research projects, include the

SPHERES The Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellite (SPHERES) are a series of miniaturized satellites developed by MIT's Space Systems Laboratory for NASA and US Military, to be used as a low-risk, extensible test bed for t ...

testbed on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. The projects have also been on the JWST Product Integrity Team, and the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative. He worked with the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

to create fully funded graduate scholarships for graduates of the

USAF Academy The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academies, United States service academy in Air Force Academy, Colorado, Air Force Academy Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Colorado Springs. I ...

FalconSAT FalconSAT is the United States Air Force Academy's (USAFA) small satellite engineering program. Satellites are designed, built, tested, and operated by Academy cadets. The project is administered by the USAFA Space Systems Research Center under ...

program.

NASA career

He served as the

from 2014 to 2017. He was the principal investigator for the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) for the

OSIRIS-REx OSIRIS-REx was a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission that visited and collected samples from 101955 Bennu, a C-type asteroid, carbonaceous near-Earth object, near-Earth asteroid. The material, returned in September 2023, is expected ...

asteroid sample return mission, which launched in 2016. He has been an advisor to or on steering committees for a variety of NASA projects: *Space Infrared Interferometric Telescope (SPIRIT) of GFSC *In-Space Assembled Telescope (iSAT) Study of

JPL The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) researche ...

As of 2025, he works as the technologist for the Astronomy and Physics Directorate at NASA's

Industry positions

Miller was selected in 2018 to be the vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) of

. He spent five years on the Air Force scientific advisory board, two of them as the vice chair.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people MIT School of Engineering faculty American aerospace engineers {{US-engineer-stub