Our Director

Dr. Brij N. Agrawal, Ph.D. 
Distinguished Professor
Director, Spacecraft Research and Design Center

Dr. Brij N. Agrawal is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Director of the Spacecraft Research and Design Center, and Director of the Adaptive Optics Center of Excellence for National Security at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). He has developed teaching and research programs in spacecraft design, acquisition, tracking and pointing, jitter control, and adaptive optics control for imaging spacecraft, laser communications, and high energy laser beam control. He founded the Spacecraft Research Design Center (SRDC) in 1997, which consists of five state-of-art laboratories. He founded the Adaptive Optics Center of Excellence for National Security (AOCoE) in 2011 at NPS with the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Prior to Joining NPS in 1989, Prof. Agrawal worked for twenty years for Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) and International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT) where he conducted research in spacecraft attitude control, spacecraft structures, and spacecraft design.  He participated in the development of several satellites: INTELSAT IV, IV-A, V, and VI. Professor Agrawal wrote the first textbook on spacecraft design: “Design of Geosynchronous Spacecraft.”  He also developed several techniques in spacecraft attitude control to avoid instability due to interaction with solar flexibility and liquid slosh.  He has been a thesis advisor for eight Ph.D. and 40 MS students. He has two patents, one on attitude control and the other on jitter control.

Prof. Agrawal has published over 150 papers in journals and conference proceedings. He has received several awards: Navy Superior Service Award, Richard Hamming Award for Interdisciplinary Achievements, AIAA Spacecraft Design Award, NPS Outstanding Teaching and Research award, and the INTELSAT Award for Inventiveness and Technological Contributions. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1970 from Syracuse University, MS in Mechanical Engineering in 1968 from McMaster University, ME (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Roorkee, and B.Sc. (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering in 1964 from IIT (BHU). He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and a registered professional engineer in the state of Maryland.