Q. Chelsea Curran

Dr. Q. Chelsea Curran is an Associate Technology Officer within the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technology Office. In this role, she is responsible for supporting the strategic development of the Laboratory’s internal R&D investments, developing and executing innovation initiatives, and aiding in the general coordination of the Laboratory’s technology development strategy.

Curran joined the Laboratory's Air Traffic Control Systems Group in 2015, where she worked on the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) program in a variety of roles, including flight data analytics lead and aerial refueling optimization lead. She became program lead in October 2020, directing a portfolio of nine research projects aimed at improving USTRANSCOM’s analytics, architecture, and cyber capabilities. In 2021, she expanded her research involvement to lead a team in developing a system dynamics model of port operations in the Los Angeles and Long Beach area, with the goal of performing tradeoff analysis of mitigation strategies to address supply chain bottlenecks.  Curran also served as the chair of the Laboratory’s Advanced Concepts Committee, which is tasked with funding innovative early-stage research concepts within the Laboratory and with university collaborators. She is an active member of the Laboratory community through recruiting, mentoring, STEM outreach activities, and diversity and inclusion initiatives, most notably through the Pan-Asian Laboratory Staff (PALS) employee resource group.

Curran holds BSE degrees in mechanical engineering and in biomedical engineering from Duke University, and SM and PhD degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT.