Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems
Department of Aeronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
About
Olivier L. de Weck is the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics and Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has authored and co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications. He is a Fellow of the INCOSE and a Fellow of the AIAA. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. From 2013-2018 de Weck served as the Editor-in-Chief for Systems Engineering, the leading journal of INCOSE. He is best known for contributions to the fields of Systems Engineering, Design optimization, and Space Logistics, where together with colleagues from JPL he coined the term Interplanetary Supply Chain. More recently he has become active in the field of Remote Sensing.
Prof. de Weck earned a Dipl. Ing. degree in Industrial Engineering from ETH Zurich in 1993. Between 1993 and 1997 he worked as a liaison engineer and engineering program manager on the Swiss F/A-18 fighter aircraft program in St. Louis, MO. He earned both a S.M. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1999 and a Ph.D. in Aerospace Systems in 2001 from MIT. His doctoral dissertation titled “Multivariable isoperformance methodology for precision opto-mechanical systems” was supervised by David W. Miller who served as NASA’s Chief Technologist.
Prof. de Weck joined the MIT faculty in 2001 where he has a dual appointment with the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). He previously served on the National Research Council Committee on Cost Growth in NASA Earth and Space Science Missions (2009–2010) and as the Executive Director of the MIT Production in the Innovation Economy (PIE) Study (2010–2013). Between 2011-2016 he served as the co-director of the Center for Complex Engineering Systems at KACST and MIT. As of 2015 he serves as the faculty director of the MIT-Switzerland program.
Prof. de Weck leads the Strategic Engineering Research Group in the MIT Engineering Systems Laboratory which emphasizes “the process of architecting and designing complex systems and products in a way that deliberately accounts for future uncertainty and context in order to maximize their lifecycle value.” Past research has been sponsored by organizations such as NASA, DARPA, Xerox, and BP.
Selected Publications
De Weck OL, 2022, Technology Roadmapping and Development: A Quantitative Approach to the Management of Technology, Springer Cham, ISBN: 978-3-030-88346-1
De Weck OL, Roos D, Magee CL, 2011, Engineering Systems: Meeting Human Needs in a Complex Technological World, The MIT Press, ISBN: 9780262016704
Haberfellner, R., de Weck, O., Fricke, E., & Vössner, S. (2019). Systems engineering: Fundamentals and applications. Springer.
Education
PhD in Aerospace Systems, MIT | 2001
S.M. in Aeronautics & Astronautics, MIT | 1999
Dipl. Ingenieur m.A in Industrial Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland | 1993
Get In Touch
Olivier is always available for consulting, conferences and professional development training worldwide. If you want to discuss infrastructure investments, design engineering, sustainability, please reach out.