Dr. David E. Bowles is the first Executive Director of the recently established Virginia Institute for Spaceflight and Autonomy (VISA) at Old Dominion University, assuming his duties in October of 2019. Located on the Eastern Shore, VISA is chartered to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystems for spaceflight and autonomy in the Commonwealth through industry, academic and governmental partnerships, leveraging the expanding space facilities and growing capability to support advances in satellites and autonomous systems, the sensors they carry and the data they produce.
Prior to his appointment at Old Dominion, Dr. Bowles was at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia for 39 years, and served as Center Director from 2015 until his retirement in 2019. As Center Director, he focused on transforming the work, the workforce and the workplace with widespread use of emerging digital and autonomous technologies, including turning the 700-acre research campus into a test range for Class D autonomous research and operations. Dr. Bowles is active in the aerospace and local communities. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, and currently serves on the Boards of the Eastern Shore Community College, the National Institute of Aerospace, the Virginia Unmanned Systems Center at CIT, and the Virginia Aerospace Business Association. He is also a member of the Virginia Governor’s Aerospace Advisory Council and served on the Expert Panel for the “Commonwealth Research and Technology Strategic Roadmap”, sponsored by State Council for Higher Education and Virginia Research Investment Committee in 2019.
Dr. Bowles earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech in 1978, 1980 and 1990, respectively. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive in 2017 as a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service, NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal in 2019, and NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal in both 2005 and 2015.
Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics, 1990
Virginia Tech (VT), Blacksburg, VA
M.S. in Engineering Mechanics, 1980
Virginia Tech (VT), Blacksburg, VA
B.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics, 1978
Virginia Tech (VT), Blacksburg, VA
VISA, Executive Director
Norfolk, VA
2019 – Present
NASA Langley Research Center, Director
Hampton, VA
2015 – 2019
NASA Langley Research Center, Associate Director then Deputy Director
Hampton, VA
2012 – 2015
NASA Langley Research Center, Deputy Director then Director of Exploration and Space Operations
Hampton, VA
2005 – 2012
NASA Langley Research Center, Project Manager
Hampton, VA
1996 – 2004
NASA Langley Research Center, Researcher
Hampton, VA
1980 – 1996
In driving innovation to commercialization, VISA selected (January 2020) 3 small Virginia Companies for Phase 1 awards (through July 2020) in an Announcement of Opportunity (AO): 8th Continent Technologies – Satellite Inspection; Sentinel Robotic Solutions (SRS) – Over the Horizon UAS Communication Mesh Network; and, Universal Solutions International (USI), Inc. – Air Launch UAS.
We’ve teamed with NASA’s Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), Analytical Mechanics and Associates (AMA), and the Virginia Small Sat Data Consortium (VRIF proposal awarded in September 2019, vadatahub.org) to develop “Virginia’s Open Data Cube” (data4va.org). This will provide easily accessible, and useable Landsat data from Virginia, to problem owners and solution providers, with plans for integrating more data sets in the future. Also co-leading with Virginia Tech, the VSDC has established a Community advisory Board and has secured two Thin-Sat payloads on NG15 from VA Space.
Related to the Data Cube, we’re part of MITRE’s Space University Innovation Exchange (UIX) with VT, UVA and GMU. ODU is leading the Data Cube framework and applying it to Coastal Resiliency – Flooding Prediction/Response. Plans being developed over the summer and will be seeking sponsors/funding in the fall.
ARISE/VADP Proposal submitted (June 30) to GO VA region 5 as a team with ODU/VISA, Hampton U, REaKTOR/NIA, William & Mary, and Longbow Group. Located at Fort Monroe to look at integration of autonomous systems into public use across air, sea and land with pillars of economic development, workforce development and research. Hope to have final selection decision in September.
Conducted two Town Halls at NASA WFF on graduate/undergraduate education opportunities at ODU.
Part of team exploring unmanned systems curriculum at Eastern Shore Community College (ESCC).
Sponsoring internships at ODU and ESCC (leveraging Virginia Space Grant Consortium).
Virginia Business, 100 people to meet in 2020, December 2019.
Space Transportation Association, NASA Langley 2019 and Beyond, July 2019.
Hampton Roads Business Journal, 2019 Inside Business Power List, May 2019.
The Daily Press, OpEd: We must return to the moon (and explore beyond), December 2018.
WHRV HearSay Radio Show, Exploring the Moon and Mars, December 2018.
First Flight Society 115’th Anniversary of Powered Flight, Induction of Katherine G. Johnson into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine, December 2018.
Aerospace America, Interview: Leading NASA Langley, February 2018.
AIAA SciTech Conference, Digital Natives Leading the Digital Revolution in Design and Knowledge Environments (Panel Moderator), January 2018
