Dr. Hilary Johnson
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Dr. Hilary Johnson is currently a Space Hardware Engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). She is the Mechanical Engineering Lead for the Pandora SmallSat Mission, a NASA Pioneers Mission, set to launch in early 2025. She also leads R&D of mechanical logic systems for robust computation in extreme environments. In addition, she engages as a subject matter expert with several early Lab Directed Research and Development (LDRD) projects. Throughout her work, Johnson integrates deterministic machine design practices with computational and machine learning informed analysis.
Johnson joined the Laboratory from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she completed her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in 2022 with a focus on precision machine design and turbomachinery and a minor in machine learning. She graduated with a A.B. and B.E. from Dartmouth College in 2015. Johnson’s research interests span a broad range of applications in space, sensing, energy, and climate, unified by a common approach to melding early TRL scientific investigation with maturing innovation using precision machine design and computation.
Hilary joined ASPE in 2017 as a graduate student with Prof. Alex Slocum, and is deeply grateful for the community of fellow geeks she’s found through the annual conference and connections. As a Director-at-Large Hilary would like to serve this community by increasing professional connections among members, encouraging more learning opportunities, recruiting early career engineers, and supporting high quality annual gatherings.