Parimal Kopardekar (PK) serves as the Director of NARI. In this capacity, he is responsible for exploring new trends, research areas, collaborations, and partnerships relevant to aeronautics enterprise. Recently, he co-led a comprehensive needs assessment study for wildfire mitigations. In the past, he served as NASA's senior technologist for Air Transportation Systems. He invented Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM), to safely enable large-scale drone operations at lower altitudes which is now being globally adopted. He also chairs International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)’s unmanned aircraft system advisory group. He is a recipient of many awards, including the NASA Government Invention of the Year, NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership Award, NASA Engineer of the Year Award, and the prestigious Samuel J. Heyman Service to America’s Promising Innovation Award.  PK was named among 25 most influential people in the drone industry. He serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Aerospace Operations and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He also serves as an adjunct faculty and teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses related to operations management, supply chain management, and innovation. He holds Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science degrees in Industrial Engineering and a bachelor’s degree in Production Engineering.