People

Director

Prof Guglielmo Aglietti

Space Institute Director

Aerospace structures and mechanisms, deployable structures

Academic and Professional Staff

Prof Roberto Armellin

Professor Mechanical Engineering

Astrodynamics, guidance, navigation and control, space surveillance and tracking

Dr Mark Battley

Associate Professor Engineering Science

Non-destructive inspection methods for materials and structures

Dr Priyanka Dhopade

Senior Lecturer in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

Sustainable engineering across thermofluids, environmental engineering and te ao Māori

Dr Richard Easther

Professor Physics

Theoretical cosmology, astrophysics

Dr Harry Holt

Research Fellow

Astrodynamics, Trajectory Design, Lyapunov Control, Reinforcement Learning

Chris Jackson

Mission Operations Centre Director

Spacecraft operations infrastructure and mission operations.

Vernon Lewis

Senior Operations Engineer

Spacecraft Operations, Systems and Software Engineering

Dr Laura Pirovano

Research Fellow

Astrodynamics, Space Situational Awareness, Orbit determination and data association

Dr Nicholas Rattenbury

Senior Lecturer in Physics

Optical communication and propulsion systems for nanosatellites, astrophysics

Dr Thomas Dowling

Lecturer in Geospatial Science

Remotely sensed data: sensor development, field validation and downstream exploitation

Dr Jason Shore

Research Fellow

Deployable structures

Oliver Sinnen

A Prof Oliver Sinnen

Associate Professor in Electrical, Computer and Software Engineering

Parallel Computing, Fault Tolerance and Robust Task Scheduling, Square Kilometre Array (SKA), FPGA Acceleration of Radio


Dr Cody Mankelow

Professional Teaching Fellow, Associate Dean Postgraduate Taught

Sustainability, Life Cycle Assessment, Our group’s webpage: https://www.sustainablespaceinitiative.org/


Dr Ben Taylor

Senior Research Fellow

Mission development, spacecraft systems


Dr Nicholas Kay

Lecturer/ Research Fellow

Aerodynamics, Autonomous Aerial Vehicles and Wind Tunnel Testing

Dr Vladimir Yotov

Research Fellow

Computational mechanics, Environmental testing

Jim Hefkey

Director – Auckland Programme for Space Systems (APSS)

Mark Honeth

Research Fellow

Mechatronics engineering, Deployable structures

Emanuele Romano

National Satellite Test Facility Manager

Catherine Qualtrough

Research Operations Manager

Laila Sabardin

Research Operations Coordinator

Postgraduate Students

Lorenzo Anoe

PhD student

New method to find Ballistic Capture trajectories. Continuation to Periodic Orbits and high-fidelity models

Jakob Balkenhohl

PhD student

Low-power hollow cathodes in AF-MPDTs at high applied magnetic field strengths

Antonella Caldarelli

PhD student

Thrust vectoring of plasma thrusters

Corinna Cerini

PhD student

Semi-empirical reduction of spacecraft structures for CLA purposes

Yashdeep Chaudhary

PhD student

Reinforced Lyapunov Controllers for Spacecraft Guidance

Adam Evans

PhD student

Robust Guidance and Station Keeping for Interplanetary Flight


Thomas Hughes

PhD student

Investigation into Reaction Wheel Assembly Spacecraft Micro-Vibrations


Mattia Longato

PhD student

Satellite microvibration source characterization

Simone Mencarelli

PhD student

Antenna development for Synthetic Aperture Radars on small satellites

Narendra Nath

PhD student

Space launch environment and vibration testing.

Zeno Pavanello

PhD student

Space debris collision risk assessment and avoidance

Annalisa Tresoldi

PhD student

Deployable structure for a Synthetic Aperture Radar antenna for small satellites

Minduli Wijayatanga

PhD student

Trajectory optimisation and guidance using indirect and convex methods

Akash Yalagach

PhD student

Deployable Structures for Optical Payloads

Jack Yarndley

PhD student

Robust Low-Thrust Trajectory Optimization

Chingiz Akniyazov

PhD student

Mixed Radar and Optical Initial Orbit Determination