Dr. John Cavolowsky is responsible for the overall planning, management, and evaluation of the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s (ARMD) efforts in foundational air traffic management (ATM) and operational safety research that enables development of revolutionary improvements to, and modernization of, the National Airspace System. This research includes exploring the introduction of new systems for vehicles whose operation can take advantage of the improved, modern ATM system, and involves working in close partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration and the aviation community to enable and extend the benefits of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) to meet evolving user needs.

Dr. Cavolowsky also supports the ARMD associate administrator in a broad range of mission directorate activities, including strategic planning and external coordination.

Previously, he was director of the Airspace Systems Program, where he provided strategic management of technical product across multiple projects within the program, and supported the former Joint Planning and Development Office in the ongoing development of NextGen. He was also the deputy program director and associate program manager for the Airspace Systems Program, and the project manager for the Human Measures and Performance Project.

Dr. Cavolowsky began his career at NASA Ames in 1989 as a project manager for aerothermodynamics, addressing research and development challenges in hypersonic propulsion and thermal protection systems. He also served as a technical manager for aerospace programs in the Office of the Center Director at Ames.

Dr. Cavolowsky received the Gene Zara Award for outstanding contributions as a national team member to the National Aerospace Plane program, as well as a number of agency achievement awards. He has published more than 25 technical papers.

He has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.