SimDynamX was founded by Dr. Greg Chamitoff and Dr. Nazareth Bedrossian. The founders have extensive experience in modeling, simulation, trajectory design, optimization, flight control systems, flight readiness certification, software tools, and operations spanning NASA, DOD, DARPA and commercial customers.
Dr. Gregory Chamitoff - SimDynamX CEO
Originally from Montreal, Canada, Greg Chamitoff served as a NASA Astronaut for 15 years, including Shuttle Missions STS-124,126,134 and Space Station long duration missions Expedition 17 and 18. He has lived and worked in Space for almost 200 days as a Flight Engineer, Science Officer, and Mission Specialist. His last mission was on the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour, during which he performed two spacewalks, including the last one of the Shuttle era which also completed the assembly of the International Space Station.
Chamitoff earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cal Poly, M.S. in Aeronautics from Caltech, and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. He also holds a Minor and a Masters in Planetary (Space) Science. Prior to selection by the NASA Astronaut Program in 1998, Chamitoff worked at Four Phase Systems, Atari Computers, Northern Telecom, IBM and Draper Laboratory. As a Draper Fellow he worked on several NASA projects, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Space Shuttle autopilot, and the attitude control system for Space Station Freedom. He was a visiting lecturer at the University of Sydney, Australia, before joining Mission Operations at the Johnson Space Center, where he worked on attitude control and maneuver optimization for the International Space Station (ISS). He is an author of NASA’s first
technology memo on resource utilization on Mars, and worked on various projects related to Mars mission design. As an Astronaut, he has been Lead CAPCOM in Mission Control, and supported ongoing missions in numerous other roles. In 2002, Chamitoff was a crewmember on the NEEMO-3 Mission (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations), living and working on the Aquarius undersea research habitat for 9 days.
Chamitoff is the William Keeler ‘49 Chair Professor of Practice in Aerospace Engineering, and Director of the Aero-Space Technology Research & Operations (ASTRO) Laboratory at Texas A&M University. He is co-author and co-editor of Human Spaceflight Operations, a textbook on the lessons learned from the past 60 years of spaceflight. His research includes space robotics, autonomous systems, and the development of collaborative virtual simulation environments for space system engineering and mission design.
Dr. Nazareth Bedrossian - SimDynamX President
Naz has more than 25 years experience working on NASA Human Space Flight programs including Space Shuttle,International Space Station (ISS), and Space Launch System flight control systems development and transitioning them to operational use. He conceived, led development and transitioned to space operational use optimal trajectories which on ISS has saved NASA approximately $100M to date. He has also led on-orbit accident and anomaly resolution teams and development of systems engineering processes which accelerate and reduce cost for space exploration missions. He is the recipient of the NASA Exceptional Public Service medal. He also established a corporate university fellow program at Rice and Texas A&M universities and has funded graduate education for more than 25 students.
Naz also has 10 years of experience in the energy industry in hardware product and business development roles. Some of the projects he has been involved in are ultrasonic impedance measurement tool that was commercialized, communication in conduit, mesh network nodes with communication and geolocation capability, high temperature fuel cells, wireless communication in conductive fluids, and solid propellant powered actuators.
Naz earned a Mechanical Engineering B.S. from the University of Florida, and M.S. and Ph.D. from MIT. He has been an invited speaker and panelist on systems engineering at Texas A&M, interviewed by the American Mathematical Society for a predictive analytics Mathematical Moments podcast, plenary speaker for the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematicians, and invited speaker at Houston Petroleum Club. He has authored more than 60 publicationsand has been quoted in Boston Business Journal, IEEE and NASA publications.