Dr. Carl R. Hartsfield has been named Director of the Center for Space Research and Assurance, within the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Graduate School of Engineering and Management, Air Force Institute of Technology.

In this role, he leads a multi-department center, focused on space related research, with a mission to enhance graduate education through applied research, delivering innovative solutions to national defense and security challenges in the space domain.

Dr. Hartsfield has over 11 years of experience as an AFIT faculty member, both as an active-duty military professor from 2009 through 2012, and as a civilian professor since 2015. He is currently an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering and has also served as the Associate Director of the Center for Space Research and Assurance and in 2012 as the Deputy Department Head for Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was also a faculty member at The Ohio State University, in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from 2013 to 2015.

During his AF career he was selected for graduate education twice, first for a Master of Science in Aeronautical Engineering at AFIT and next for a Doctor of Philosophy in Astronautical Engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey CA.

He retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2012 and brings 20 years of active-duty AF experience in intelligence and space related assignments to the center director position. Dr. Hartsfield’s assignments included Satellite Systems program manager at the National Reconnaissance Office, leading the development and integration of a number of state-of-the-art sensor systems. He also had a wide variety of other Air Force assignments, including the Aircraft Integration Engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Foreign Advanced Technology Analyst at the National Air Intelligence Center (now the National Air and Space Intelligence Center), both at Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, Chief of Technical Engineering at the 91st Missile Wing, Minot AFB, ND, and as a Squadron Adjutant for the 35th Fighter Squadron, Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea. He was commissioned out of AFROTC Detachment 165 at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering degree in 1991.