Luis Piñero, P.E.

Mr. Piñero has over 30 years experience in electric propulsion with the U.S. Federal Government. He has designed, built and tested high-performance power processing units (PPU) for a variety of electric thrusters including gridded ion, Hall effect, pulsed-plasma, arcjet and resistojet thrusters from a few hundred to multiple kilowatts. Mr. Piñero has extensively studied the electrical interface between electric thrusters and PPUs to understand the dynamics of steady-state and transient behavior. Mr. Piñero has participated in multiple flight programs supporting development and qualification activities for PPUs. He has extensive experience in electric propulsion system integration and ground support equipment and diagnostics design and fabrication.

He has authored over 60 technical papers in electric propulsion and PPUs and has received over 25 awards including the 2021 Great Minds in STEM (GMiS) Luminary Award for his contributions as leader and role model to the Hispanic technical community.

Mr. Piñero received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus in 1990 and his M.S. in electrical engineering from Cleveland State University in 1996. He is also a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Ohio.