Institute for Strategic and Innovative Technologies
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ISIT Fellow – Space Technologies
Dr. David L. Chesny is an applied physicist with over twelve years of experience in advanced technology development and testing. He has specific experience in pulsed power engineering, control systems, precision diagnostics, plasma physics, data analyses, and modeling & simulation. As the lead physicist, he pursued novel particle accelerator development for electric space propulsion, nuclear fusion applications, and directed energy missile defense. Dr. Chesny also has extensive experience with program management, technical writing, developing requirements, documentation, and reporting to private and government entities.
He holds a PhD. in Physics and Space Sciences from Florida Institute of Technology. Over the course of his career, Dr. Chesny has worked for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, OrangeWave Innovative Science, LLC, and Tomahawk Robotics/AeroVironment. He is also currently chief scientist for SpaceWave, LLC, where he is the principle investigator for a Dept. of Energy grant.
Dr. Chesny was previously visiting faculty at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was runner-up for the 2016 Dr. David Watson Postdoctoral Poster Prize at NASA Human Research Program Investigators’ Workshop. He holds a patent on torsional magnetic reconnection technology.