He lives in Thousand Oaks, California and enjoys Southern California's beaches, hiking, basketball, and entertainment. Gaurav is a US citizen with active security clearance. He has won various awards over the course of his career including a best university doctoral dissertation award. He has served as a symposium organizer and session chair at various technical conferences, and served as a reviewer for various technical journals. He is extensively networked with government, industry, and academia.
He has served as the PI/PM on government-funded CRAD programs and industry-funded IRAD programs, and closely collaborated with several government agencies. His body of work has spanned the manufacturing, experimental characterization, and finite element modeling of textiles, polymer matrix composites, and ceramic matrix composites for armor, aerospace, space, and hypersonics applications, with >20 first-author journal papers. He has made both seminal and major research contributions in the field of composites. He has worked both in Scientist and Engineer type roles as part of his career spanning Industry and Academia. He has completed various certificate courses in Leadership, Finance, Six Sigma, and Aerospace Project Management. Nilakantan holds PhD, MS, and BE degrees in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering. He is a recipient of the BR&T Performance & Innovation Award (PI Award) and is a Boeing Designated Expert (BDE).ĭr.
He previously supported Boeing satellite programs working out of the El Segundo, CA site. In this role he supports Boeing hypersonics and space programs. and/or project manager on multiple CRAD, IAD, and IRAD programs and has. Gaurav Nilakantan is the Space & Hot Structures Technology Lead for Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T) Integrated Vehicle Systems (IVS) Extreme Environments group, working out of the Huntington Beach, CA site.