Daniel Delaurentis

Daniel A. DeLaurentis is the Bruce Reese Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University, Chief Scientist of the Department of Defense Systems Engineering Research Center (SERC), and Vice President for Research Institutes and Centers within Purdue’s Discovery Park District. His research centers on the development of mathematical modeling, system-of-systems design frameworks, and decision-support tools that address high-complexity aerospace challenges. DeLaurentis investigates how interacting air vehicles, transportation infrastructures, and autonomous collectives behave as integrated systems, advancing methods for robust design, uncertainty quantification, and requirement exploration across large design spaces. His group develops algorithms for flight vehicle sizing and synthesis, stability and control in conceptual design, agent-based modeling, network-theoretic analysis, and technology impact assessment. These approaches support the design of advanced aerial mobility concepts, distributed space architectures, multi-modal transportation systems, and resilient autonomous vehicle networks. His contributions include pioneering methods that merge robust control theory with aerospace systems engineering, along with foundational research on network connectivity and system-level performance metrics. A Fellow of both AIAA and INCOSE, DeLaurentis has also received multiple awards and served on program committees and national panels. His work continues to shape modern aerospace decision-making and complex system design.