Profile of the Week

Dr Srinivas V. Bettadpur is the Associate Professor and Director, Center for Space Research at the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Bettadpur holds an appointment as well in the Department of Geological Sciences in the Jackson School of Geosciences, and is an affiliate of the UT Applied Research Laboratory. Dr Bettadpur’s research areas of expertise are in orbital mechanics and space geodesy. His research is focused on the modeling and analysis of Earth’s dynamics through space-based metrology and remote sensing and the connections between global space-geodetic measurements and their regional applications. His core research interests are the design and architecture of space missions for this purpose; the analysis of space geodetic data; and the interpretation of the results. He is the principal investigator for UT Austin’s efforts for the GRACE Follow-On Mission which replaced the existing twin GRACE satellites in 2018. Bettadpur was instrumental in establishing a UT-NASA partnership for a next-generation geodetic observatory at UT’s McDonald Observatory in West Texas.