Dr. Ajay K. Misra serves as the deputy director of Research and Engineering at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He shares responsibility with the director of Research and Engineering for leading and managing approximately 1,000 scientists, engineers, and administrative staff dedicated to Glenn’s research and development in propulsion, communications, power, and materials and structures for extreme environments supporting NASA’s missions.
Misra is also actively engaged in various digital transformation (DT) activities both at the agency and center level. He serves as the executive DT champion for NASA Glenn and the agency-wide digital engineering effort. He also serves as the co-lead for the model-based everything activity, which is one of the key areas of the agency’s DT effort.
Prior to his current role, Misra served as chief of the Materials and Structures Division in the Research and Engineering Directorate at Glenn, where he provided executive leadership for all aspects of planning, organizing, and directing technology development and demonstration efforts, ranging from basic and applied research in advanced materials and structures for aerospace propulsion and power to the development of space flight structures. He held several organizational management positions in the Materials and Structures Division, including deputy division chief and chief of the Ceramics Branch.
He has completed multiple detail assignments at NASA Headquarters in Washington D.C. Initially, he served as deputy program director and later as acting program director for the Fundamental Aeronautics Program in the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. He also served as program executive for the Radioisotope Power System program in the Science Mission Directorate. His responsibilities included developing advanced nuclear radioisotope power systems to power future robotic planetary science missions, with activities ranging from new technology development to qualifying technologies for flight.
He earned a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in business administration from Cleveland State University. He has published more than 60 technical papers and four book chapters, and has received several prestigious awards for his work, including the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executives in 2015.
