Sometimes, it is as easy as rocket science. That’s been the focus of L. Brad King’s career since the beginning—and the Richard and Elizabeth Henes Endowed Professor of Space Systems with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is going back to basics as this year’s First-Year Engineering Lecture series speaker.
Part of an annual College of Engineering series hosted by the Department of Engineering Fundamentals, King’s lecture, entitled “You’re Good at Math and You Like to Build Things, Now What?,” will cover his expansive career as well as provide practical advice to students on what to expect as they become engineers. This special event, which is exclusively for first-year engineering students, takes place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9, in Michigan Tech’s Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.
King has been a Michigan Tech professor since 2000, and his love of all things space and engineering has propelled him forward all his life. After graduating from the University of Michigan with his BS, MS, and PhD in aerospace engineering, King served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado.
Within the broad field of aerospace engineering, King found his niche. “Very early in my studies I realized that the biggest impediment to space exploration is propulsion,” King said previously. “Space is just so big it’s hard to get anywhere. So I dedicated my professional life to developing new space propulsion technologies.”
Born and raised in the Keweenaw Peninsula, King was always looking for a way to return to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Following his time at NIST, he joined Michigan Tech as a faculty member and has been leading researcher in electric space propulsion systems, including Hall-effect thrusters, ion engines and arcjets, for more than 20 years. Today, King is the director of the Space Systems research group, leads the Ion Space Propulsion Lab, and advises the Aerospace Enterprise team.
The research and development of propulsion thrusters expanded off campus in 2016. Through his research at MTU, King founded Orbion Space Technology with his partner Jason Sommerville, a company specializing in Hall-effect propulsion systems based in Houghton, Michigan. King currently serves as CEO. The company employs more than 40 full-time engineers who develop products used in low Earth orbit, deep space, the surface of Mars and beyond. Orbion and its leadership have been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and SpaceNews.
King is launching more than rockets from the Keweenaw. As a dedicated mentor, King’s former students have gone on to have illustrious careers as engineers and researchers for the US Air Force, NASA, SpaceX, as well as independent start-ups and manufacturers. King has even hired former students to work at Orbion.
“Our students don’t just write papers and computer programs,” said King. “They know how to turn wrenches and build things. That’s been deeply ingrained in the University culture for years.”
It’s that same culture that King will continue to help foster as this year’s First Year Engineering Lecture series speaker. He’s address more than 1,000 first-year engineering students, including the first aerospace engineering undergraduate students on campus, as they embark on their new journeys as Husky engineers.
About the College of Engineering
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