CEO, Emergent Space Technologies, Inc.
B.S. ASE 1987, The University of Texas at Austin
M.S. ASE 1990, The University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. ASE 1996, The University of Texas at Austin
George W. Davis is the Founder and CEO of Emergent Space Technologies, Inc., an aerospace engineering and software development firm headquartered in Laurel, Maryland. His research interests include spacecraft autonomy for distributed space missions and GPS-based positioning, navigation and timing.
Davis received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.
He began his career in 1996 at the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research at the University of Colorado as a post-doctoral research scientist. In 1997, he moved his family to Maryland to join the Orbital Sciences Corporation and support the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the development and test of spaceborne GPS navigation technology. In 2000, he took a brief hiatus from the aerospace industry and joined Appnet, an information technology company that built websites for commercial and government clients. In 2001, he returned to the aerospace industry to found Emergent to provide technical services and technology development support to NASA and the Department of Defense. For example, Emergent delivered flight software to DARPA in 2014 called the Cluster Flight Application Suite that will be used to support autonomous clusters, constellations and swarms of small satellites for a number of civilian, military and intelligence community space missions and programs over the coming years.
Davis has regularly served on the ASE/EM External Advisory Committee since 2005, including a stint as the committee chair. In this capacity, he advised the ASE/EM department on technology, business and hiring trends in the aerospace industry from a small business perspective. In addition, Emergent actively recruits UT aerospace engineering students as interns and employees, making UT the most represented university in the company. Davis is a member of the AIAA and the ION.
He lives with his wife Elizabeth, also a University of Texas graduate, in Ellicott City, Maryland. Their three children, Tristan, Graham and Kieran, have left home and are in various stages of their college and professional lives. When he is not working, Davis enjoys exercise, reading and playing golf and softball in NASA GSFC leagues, and he recently returned to coaching youth basketball.
