Leena Singh

Dr. Leena Singh is a senior staff member in the Interceptor and Sensor Technology Group in the Air, Missile, and Maritime Defense Technology Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Her particular area of focus is the guidance, navigation, and control of satellite, rocket, and uncrewed air vehicle platforms. She works on concept design and analysis of novel space and reentry missions ranging from the attitude control of spinning spacecraft to the guidance and precision rendezvous control of spacecraft in exotic orbits, fine estimation and control of pointing and tracking systems, and interceptor autopilots.

Prior to joining Lincoln Laboratory, Singh worked at Draper Laboratory as a technical staff member, group leader, and eventually division technical staff, focusing on the guidance, navigation, and control of aeronautical and astronautical systems. She worked on the stabilization and control of satellites in orbit; the targeting, guidance, and control of in-space rendezvous as well as reentry and planetary descent systems; and the guidance and control of atmospheric aerodynamic vehicles (uncrewed aircraft and guided parafoils). Singh was the technical lead of the attitude determination and control system for NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) constellation of Earth-monitoring microsatellites, which are still operational on orbit and providing weather monitoring data.

Singh is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA); has served on the AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Technical Committee; and is currently a senior member of the AIAA Space Exploration Integration Committee. She was included in the National Academy of Engineering's Frontiers of Engineering symposia for early-career engineers in 2012 and 2014. She has BS degrees in physics and mathematics, and MS and PhD degrees in aerospace engineering with a specialization in control systems theory.