Joel Sercel

Joel Sercel has had extensive work experience in the aerospace industry. Joel started their career at JPL in 1983, where they held various positions such as Member of Technical Staff, Technical Group Leader, and Program Manager for Spacecraft Technology. At JPL, they led the design of the mission and space flight engineering process and was involved in the design and analysis of various aspects of spacecraft technology.

In 1993, Sercel joined the California Institute of Technology as a Research Staff member. Joel served as a senior technical advisor to the Air Force Research Laboratory and was also the Chief Systems Engineer for the Transformational MILSATCOM program. During their time at Caltech, they taught graduate-level courses in fields like Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics and directed a research lab in Spacecraft and Mission Design.

Sercel then worked for the US Air Force as an IPA - Senior Government Official. Joel played a key role in the systems engineering and management of the TSAT program and later advised AFRL on their network-based innovation process.

In 1997, Sercel founded ICS Associates Inc., where they served as Founder and Principal Engineer. Joel consulted with leading aerospace companies on the development of design centers for Integrated Concurrent Engineering (ICE) and provided assistance with process definition, design tool selection, and information system design.

Later, in 2015, Sercel became the President & CEO of Trans Astronautica Corporation.

In 2019, they joined Momentus as the Chief Technology Officer after being the head of Momentus's Technical Advisory Board. Joel oversaw the development of patents, grew the engineering team, and established a world-class propulsion innovation and technology team.

Overall, Joel Sercel has demonstrated strong leadership and expertise in systems engineering, spacecraft technology, and innovation processes throughout their career in the aerospace industry.

Joel Sercel completed their education at various institutions. Joel began their academic journey at the United States Air Force Academy from 1979 to 1982, where they studied Astronautical Engineering. After that, they pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics at the University of Arizona from 1982 to 1984. Later, they moved on to Caltech, where they obtained their Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering between 1987 and 1993. Apart from these formal degrees, Joel Sercel has also obtained a certification as a KIA Practitioner from The KAI Centre (UK), although the specific time of acquisition is not mentioned.