Nhan Nguyen is a research computer scientist in the Intelligent Systems Divisions and an employee at NASA Ames Research Center since 1986. He is currently the group lead of Advanced Control and Evolvable Systems (ACES) Group within the Autonomous Systems and Robotics (ASR) Technical Research Area. Previously, he served as the Project Scientist from (2007 – 2010) and Deputy Principal Investigator (2006 - 2007) for NASA Aeronautics Reseach Mission Directorate (ARMD) Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control (IRAC) Project. He is currently the task lead of Adaptive Aeroelastic Shape Control (AASC) research element for NASA ARMD Fixed Wing Project.
Nhan Nguyen has more than 105 publications including 17 journal articles and 3 book chapters. He gave three seminars on adaptive control. He received a best paper award at AIAA Infotech@Aerospace conference in 2009, and a one of ten best papers award at AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control conference in 2004. His current research interests include adaptive flight control, distributed parameter optimal control of hyperbolic aeroelastic and fluid systems, flow control, aircraft flight dynamics, and aeroelasticity. His recent adaptive control method "Optimal Control Modification" has been implemented and successfully flight tested on a NASA F-18 aircraft at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in 2010 and 2011. He developed an active wing shaping control actuation concept called “Variable Camber Continuous Trailing Edge Flap” which has been featured in a number of articles by Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. He holds one U.S. patent and two patents pending, and received several distinguished awards including NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal 2012, NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal 1997, two NASA Ames Honor Awards for Excellence in Category of Engineer 2012 and 1999, and NASA Space Act Award 2002. He is an AIAA Associate Fellow, and was the Conference General Chair of AIAA Infotech@Aerospace in 2012. He received an AIAA Intelligent Systems Technical Committee Distinguished Service Award in 2012. He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and has taught graduate courses in Advanced Dynamics, Aircraft Flight Dynamics and Performance, and Adaptive Control. He received a Santa Clara University Adjunct Lecturer of the Year Award in 2011. He has a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Santa Clara University.
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