Dr. Michael A. Krainak is Chief Technology Officer of Relative Dynamics Inc., where he directs internal research and development and advances optical communication terminals for terrestrial, airborne, high-altitude, and satellite applications. He has also served as principal investigator on NASA Small Business Innovation Research programs developing next-generation optical communications for missions beyond low Earth orbit and large-space-optics technologies.
Before joining Relative Dynamics, Dr. Krainak spent 28 years at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center working on intersatellite laser communications, lidar, integrated photonics, lasers, and photon-counting detectors. As head of Goddard’s Laser and Electro-Optics Branch, he helped guide NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration and development of an optical communications ground station and low-Earth-orbit user modem. His NASA assignments also included technical leadership for the ICESat/GLAS cloud-lidar subsystem, ICESat-2/ATLAS laser and detector design reviews, and contributions to the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration, Mars Laser Communication Demonstration, LISA laser development, atmospheric carbon-dioxide sensing, and spaceborne sodium lidar.
Dr. Krainak served as NASA’s representative to the AIM Photonics consortium and as integrated-photonics lead for several NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate research programs. His work spans coherent optical receivers, photonic integrated circuits, advanced lasers, quantum and optical sensors, lidar, and precision optical systems. He has co-authored more than 200 technical publications and holds multiple patents. NASA Goddard named him its 2018 Internal Research and Development Innovator of the Year for combining broad technical expertise, visionary thinking, and research leadership.
He earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from The Catholic University of America and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Earlier in his career, he worked at AT&T Western Electric, the National Security Agency’s Computer Research Group, and semiconductor-laser company Quantum Photonics. Today, he focuses on translating advanced photonics research into practical optical systems for government and commercial missions.