Shon R. Grabbe
NASA Science ·
Shon has built his career around two guiding passions: pushing the boundaries of technology and building the collaborative teams needed to turn ambitious ideas into reality. His work spans physics, aviation, and quantum computing, and throughout these fields he has focused on advancing tools and methods that help shape NASA’s future missions. From early contributions […] The post Shon R. Grabbe appeared first on NASA Science .
Technical Lead, Aerospace Computing Innovations
Shon has built his career around two guiding passions: pushing the boundaries of technology and building the collaborative teams needed to turn ambitious ideas into reality. His work spans physics, aviation, and quantum computing, and throughout these fields he has focused on advancing tools and methods that help shape NASA’s future missions. From early contributions in modeling and simulation to more recent efforts in quantum information science, Shon’s career reflects a deep belief that transformative progress comes from sustained investment in emerging technologies.
A hallmark of Shon’s leadership is his commitment to creating environments where multidisciplinary teams thrive. He has worked closely with computer scientists, operational researchers, aeronautical engineers, human factors specialists, quantum computing researchers, and many others—helping teams succeed by aligning vision, resources, and opportunity. Seeing colleagues advance their own careers through publications, patents, promotions, and software releases remains one of the most meaningful aspects of his work.
Shon’s contributions span several major NASA efforts. His leadership within the Aerospace Computing Innovations Technical Area within NASA’s Ames’ Intelligent Systems Division focuses on guiding strategy, shaping workforce development, and advancing cutting-edge research in machine learning, systems health monitoring, physics-based modeling, computational materials, and quantum computing. Before this role, he helped steer the direction of the Quantum Applications and Information Laboratory (QuAIL), contributing to NASA’s exploration of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum devices, quantum benchmarking and error mitigation methods, and quantum-compatible machine learning approaches for Earth science and aeronautics.
Shon has also played a key role in strengthening NASA’s capabilities in air traffic management. Earlier in his career, he managed the SMART NAS Project—an effort involving more than 120 researchers working to help transform the future of aviation—and contributed over a decade of research and leadership in Air Traffic Flow Management. His service as an Associate Editor for a major AIAA journal reflects his commitment to advancing the broader research community.
Across all of these roles, Shon remains guided by a simple principle: breakthroughs happen when technical excellence is paired with teams empowered to do their best work. This approach continues to shape his contributions to NASA’s mission and to the technologies that will define the next generation of aerospace exploration.
Ph.D. Theoretical Atomic Physics, Kansas State University, 1997
B.S. Physics, Kansas State University, 1992
E G. Rieffel, et al., Assessing and advancing the potential of quantum computing: A NASA case study, Future Generation Computer System 160, 598-618 (2024)
Z Gonzalez, S. Grabbe, S. Hadfield, J. Marshall, Z. Wang, and E. Rieffel, Ferromagnetically shifting the power of pausing, Physical Review Applied 15 (4) 044013 (2021)
S Grabbe, B. Sridhar, A. Mukherjee, Clustering days and hours with similar airport traffic and weather conditions, Journal of Aerospace Information Systems 11 (11), 751-763 (2014)
H.K. Ng, B. Sridhar, and S. Grabbe, Optimizing aircraft trajectories with multiple cruise altitude in the presence of winds, Journal of Aerospace Information Systems 11 (1), 35-47 (2014)
A Mukherjee, M. Hansen, S. Grabbe, Ground delay program planning under uncertainty in airport capacity, Transportation Planning and Technology 35 (6), 611-628 (2012)
S Grabbe, B. Sridhar, A Mukherjee, Sequential traffic flow optimization with tactical flight control heuristics, Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics 32 (3), 810-820 (2009)
B Sridhar, S.R. Grabbe, A. Mukerhjee, Modeling and optimization in traffic flow management, Proc. IEEE 96 (120, 2060-2080 (2008)
K.D. Bilimoria, B. Sridhar, S.G. Grabbe, G.B. Chatterji, K.S. Sheth, FACET: Future ATM Concepts evaluation took, Air Traffic Control Quarterly 9 (1), 1-20 (2001)
MF Gu, et al., Laboratory measurements of Fe XXIV line emission: 3-> 2 transition near excitation threshold, The Astrophysical Journal 518 (2), 1002-1009 (1999)
K R Karim, S.R. Grabbe, C.P. Bhalla, Radiative and Auger de-excitation of hollow argon atoms, Journal of Physic B: Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics 29 (17), 4007-4016 (1996)
NASA’s Software of the Year Award recipient, 2006
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Software Engineering Aware recipient, 2009
Government Invention of the Year Award co-recipient, 2010
Co-inventor of a United States Patent entitled, “Air Traffic Management Evaluation Tool.” Patent No. US 7,702,427 B1, Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
shon.grabbe@nasa.gov
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