Richard Linares

Rockwell International Career Development Professor
Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Pronouns He/His
Did you know there are more than 900,000 pieces of space debris ranging in size from 1-10 cm orbiting the Earth right now, and they are all traveling faster than a bullet?

Contact Info

Office Phone

617.258.6738

Email

Office

Social Media:

Administrative Contact

Corrine Giordani
617.452.3840

Financial Contact

Jei Lee Freeman
617.253.1695

Specialization and Research Interests

Astrodynamics, space situational awareness, satellite guidance and navigation, estimation and controls, optimal control, reinforcement learning

Academic Degrees

2014, Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York; 2011, M.S. Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo; 2009, B.S. Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo

Society Memberships

American Astronautical Society, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Positions Held at MIT

Assistant Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics, July 2018 — present

Positions Held outside MIT

Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, University of Minnesota, 2015 – 2018; Postdoctoral Associate, United States Naval Observatory (USNO), Washington D.C., 2014 – 2015; Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 2013 – 2015; Visiting Researcher, United States Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), Maui High Performance Computing, Maui, HI, May-July 2014; Visiting Researcher, United States Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM, 2012 – 2013; Research Aerospace Engineer, Calspan-University at Buffalo Research Center (CUBRC Inc.), Buffalo, NY, 2010 – 2012; Graduate Research Assistant, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, Sep-May 2010

Affiliated Labs

Featured Story

MIT-led team to develop software to help forecast space storms
National Science Foundation awards proposal for space weather modeling.
See all stories

Awards & Honors

2020
Young Faculty Award, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
2019
Frontiers of Engineering, National Academy of Engineering
2018
Young Investigator Research Program Award, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
2013
Director's Postdoctoral Fellowship, Los Alamos National Laboratory
2012
Vela Fellowship, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Key publications