Dr. Mark Whorton is the Chief Technology Officer of GTRI with responsibility for technology strategy and stewardship of discretionary investments supporting internal research and development. Dr. Whorton’s subject matter expertise is guidance, navigation and control of aerospace vehicles. He earned his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech where his thesis work addressed the dynamics and control of flexible space structures.

Prior to joining GTRI, Dr. Whorton was the Executive Director of the University of Tennessee Space Institute where he led the Space Institute’s mission in advanced research and graduate education in engineering and physics. Prior to joining UTSI, Dr. Whorton was Chief Technologist of Teledyne Brown Engineering in Huntsville, Alabama where he conceived and led development of MUSES, an advanced platform for commercial earth imaging from the International Space Station. He was also President of Teledyne Optech, Inc., developer of airborne LIDAR instruments and camera systems for coastal zone mapping.

Dr. Whorton completed a 20+ year civil servant career at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in 2009 where he was a technical expert in dynamics and control of launch vehicles, spacecraft, and space structures and served as Chief of the Guidance, Navigation, and Mission Analysis Branch while leading development of GNC systems for the NASA Crew Launch Vehicle Ares 1. Whorton is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and has authored 8 journal articles and over 60 conference papers.