About Me.
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Dr. Gaurav Nilakantan is a composite materials subject matter expert (SME) and currently works at Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T) supporting Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) programs including Boeing Satellites out of its El Segundo, California site. He is a Senior Composites M&P Engineer and serves as the Composites Technical Lead Engineer (TLE) for the El Segundo M&P group. He was awarded a BR&T Performance & Innovation Award (PI Award) in 2019, the same year he joined Boeing, and was the 2019 BDS Rosen Games innovation competition champion. He serves on the leadership team of ET&T | IT&DA’s ONE program. Dr. Nilakantan focuses on technological and organizational transformation to continuously accelerate and mainstream enterprise-wide innovation, improvement, and productivity to enhance Boeing’s competitiveness. His various initiatives and contributions at Boeing have resulted in major technology and business impact.
Dr. Nilakantan holds a PhD degree in Materials Science and Engineering, and Masters and Bachelors degrees in Mechanical Engineering. He has completed certificate courses in Leadership at all Levels (MIT), Accounting and Finance for the Non-Finance Manager (UCSD), and Six Sigma Green Belt for Process Improvement (USC). He has worked both in scientist and engineer type roles as part of his career spanning industry and academia. He joined Boeing in May 2019, prior to that he worked as a Research Scientist at Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, CA, and prior to that he worked in Academia at two university composites centers. His extensive breadth and depth of composites research work and first-author technical publications including 23 first-author journal papers have spanned the manufacturing, experimental characterization, and finite element modeling of textiles, polymer matrix composites, and ceramic matrix composites for armor, aerospace, space, and hypersonics applications. He has previously made both seminal and major research contributions in the field of composites. He has previously served as the PI/PM on DoD-funded CRAD programs and industry-funded IRAD programs, and closely collaborated with several DoD government agencies. He is extensively networked with government, industry, and academia. He has previously served as a symposium organizer and session chair at various technical conferences, and served as a reviewer for various technical journals. He has won various awards over the course of his career including a best university doctoral dissertation award. Gaurav is a US citizen and lives in Los Angeles, California. He enjoys Los Angeles' beaches, hiking, basketball, and entertainment. |