ARLINGTON, VA – Dr. Karen Gundy-Burlet, Ph.D. PMP, director of Aerospace Systems and Technology for Crown Consulting Inc., has been tapped to manage the NASA Academic Mission Services 2 (NAMS-2) contract at Ames Research Center.

The five-year, $121 million NAMS-2 contract, led by Crown, provides aerospace and technology research and development support for NASA Ames, located in California’s Silicon Valley. The Crown team of industry, government, academic and nonprofit partners expand Ames’ capabilities with expertise, staffing and services that advance fundamental research and development, field-test deployments and operational missions.

Gundy-Burlet brings a long and distinguished career at Ames as a civil servant and contractor. She directed Crown’s personnel and technical activities for NAMS-1, Project and Engineering Support Services (PESS-2) and Simlabs contracts for Ames. She currently develops onboard fault management flight software for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER), and she served as technical area lead in the NASA Ames Aviation Systems Division.

Previously, she served as a research scientist and principal investigator at NASA Ames, working across a range of aerospace disciplines, including computational fluid dynamics, high performance computing, internal and external flows, modeling and simulation, machine learning and big data, intelligent flight control, validation and verification, and spacecraft flight software.

Gundy-Burlet holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Stanford University. She is a Project Management Professional, member of the Association for Computing Machinery and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and has received numerous awards, including NASA Super Star of Modern Aeronautics, NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement medal and NASA Exceptional Service medal.

Joining Gundy-Burlet on the NAMS-2 leadership team are:

• Tom Davis, chief technologist, who will assist Gundy-Burlet with technical and management functions
• Mohamad Refai, technical group manager for Digital Transformation & Security projects.
• A soon-to-be-named deputy program manager and technical group managers for both Research Concepts projects and Integration of Advanced Air Mobility in the National Airspace System projects.

For more information about the contract and job opportunities, visit nams-2-crown.com.