Dr. Sean Casey
Dr. Casey is the co-founder of the Silicon Valley Space Center, a non- profit business accelerator focused on connecting entrepreneurs with the NewSpace Industry. For the last 15-years, Dr. Casey served as a senior scientist with the Universities Space Research Association for NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The SOFIA program is a joint mission between NASA and the DLR. On SOFIA, Dr. Casey's responsibilities included coordination of the design and development of the first-light science instruments and leadership of science instrument integration for early SOFIA science. Dr. Casey did his undergraduate work at Knox College in Galesburg, IL and his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. Dr. Casey's personal research interests include the study of interstellar dust grain composition and their resultant optical absorption and emission properties. As a research scientist, Dr. Casey has worked at both NASA Goddard, Ames, and the Dryden Flight Research Center. While at Chicago and Goddard, he did a considerable amount of observing aboard the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, a predecessor to SOFIA. Dr. Casey also holds dual MBAs from the Berkeley Haas and Columbia Schools of business and serves as an adviser and co-founder for several NewSpace start-ups in Silicon Valley.