Ben Phillips

Dr. Ben Phillips is a systems analyst in the Aeronautics Systems Analysis Branch (ASAB) within the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD) at NASA Langley Research Center.  He currently serves as the Transformative Tools and Technologies (TTT) Project’s Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization (MDAO) Technical Lead.  He also serves as the group lead for the tools and methods team in ASAB and oversees all tool development from concept ideation through code release. 

His research is focused on system-level uncertainty quantification, MDAO methods and applications, verification and validation as well as statistical best practices for data gathering and reporting.  Ben has been involved with a number of projects within ARMD, most recently supporting the Commercial Supersonic Technology Project and the Advanced Air Transport Technology Project.  He led the development of software tools for uncertainty quantification and design under uncertainty and is a strong advocate for open source software release. 

Ben started his career at NASA as an intern at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2010.  In 2012, Ben came to NASA Langley while attending graduate school and has been at Langley since.  Upon completion of his Ph.D., he briefly held a postdoctoral position in the Vehicle Analysis Branch within SACD before converting to a civil servant in 2016. 

He has a B.S. from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (2011) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Old Dominion University (2014, 2016).