NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Kevin L. Petersen, The Center Director

Kevin L. Petersen is the director of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. Petersen became center director on Feb. 8, 1999, after serving as acting director of Dryden since Aug. 1, 1998.

As NASA's primary installation for flight research for more than six decades, NASA Dryden is chartered to conceive and conduct experimental flight research and test for advanced aeronautical and aerospace configurations. NASA Dryden plays a vital role in carrying out the agency's missions of space exploration, space operations, scientific discovery, and aeronautical research and development. In carrying out this mission, Dryden operates some of the most advanced research aircraft in the nation.

Petersen served as Dryden's deputy director from January 1996 to July 1998 after serving in an acting capacity since April 1994, and as an assistant to the director for the prior six months.

His earlier assignments at the center included being chief of the Dynamics and Controls Branch within the Research Engineering Division. There, he provided multidisciplinary support to a variety of research programs in the areas of flight dynamics and controls, structural dynamics, and flight systems. Programs he supported in these capacities included the F 18 High Angle of Attack Research Vehicle and the X 29 Forward Swept Wing technology demonstrator aircraft, serving as chief engineer on that project. He also headed the center's National AeroSpace Plane project office from February 1992 through November 1993.

Petersen began his career at NASA Dryden as a university co op student in 1971, and was hired as an aerospace engineer upon graduation in 1974. Early in his career at Dryden, Petersen worked as a research engineer on the F 8 Digital Fly By Wire and the Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology projects.

Petersen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University, and earned a Master of Science degree from the University of California – Los Angeles in 1976, specializing in control systems. In 1979, he furthered his education at Stanford University in a year long graduate engineering program. He received NASA's Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal in 1985, NASA's Exceptional Service Medal in 1987, NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2000, and NASA's Equal Employment Opportunity Medal in 2001 for his contributions to the agency.

December 2007