Lori Magruder
Lori Magruder is an Associate Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin and holds the Myron L. Begeman Fellowship in Engineering. Dr. Magruder’s research has advanced the state-of-the-art in remote sensing and sensemaking for geospatial applications, leading to new uses for space-based observations, new methods to manage data quality and the development of new data products used by the national and international science community. She also serves as the Director of the UT Center for Space Research, an organized research unit in the UT Cockrell School of Engineering. Dr. Magruder received her bachelor’s degree from The University of Southern California in Aerospace Engineering and her master’s degree from Princeton University in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Her Ph.D. was earned from The University of Texas at Austin with a focus on ground-based validation studies for NASA’s ICESat mission. She has held positions at Jet Propulsion Laboratory and The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory prior to returning to UT Austin. After 9 years of Science Team leadership on the NASA ICESat-2 mission, that included both mission development and implementation guidance as well as the operational strategies for instrument pointing capabilities, Dr. Magruder has moved onto positions on other remote sensing science and instrument teams. Dr. Magruder leads many other NASA research efforts in addition to supporting remote sensing programs through the Department of Defense with her expertise in geospatial topics and the unique link she brings between engineering and multi-disciplinary science applications. Dr. Magruder also serves on the Central Texas Spaceport Development Corporation Board of Directors and as a member of the Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium Executive Council.
Jeff Perry
Jeff is a senior engineering scientist and the 3DGL lead developer.
Alec Lewandowski
Alec Lewandowski joined 3DGL in Fall 2025 as an Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. student and is a recipient of the Provost Graduate Excellence and Thrust 2000 Fellowships at UT Austin. His research focuses on trade space analysis and mission design for distributed spacecraft missions (DSMs). Alec is addressing how to leverage DSMs for 3D reconstruction models and the design space associated with distributed imaging systems. This research aims to provide analysis software for multi-agent spacecraft imaging and better characterize 3D reconstruction models from orbit. Alec holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Megan Renshaw
Megan Renshaw is a fourth year Ph.D. student and a recipient of the Cockrell School Thrust 2000 Fellowship. Her research focuses on geospatial data fusion and machine learning, leveraging NASA remote sensing platforms like ICESat-2, GRACE-FO, and Sentinel-1. Megan’s work aims to better characterize seasonal flood patterns in the Amazon basin. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and worked previously at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on the James Webb telescope flight software team.
Anakin Martinez
Anakin is an Engineering Scientist Associate. He holds a B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from UT Austin and has worked at CSR for 2 years. His research involves using machine learning for multi-data fusion to explore geospatial analytics for change detection and mobility. He also works to implement foundation models for understanding Earth science at scale.
Katie Smith
Katie is a first year Ph.D student in Aerospace Engineering. She is working toward new computational methods for integrating multi-modal lunar remote sensing data for improved understanding of the topography for resource mapping and safety of navigation on the moon. Katie has an undergraduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse Unviersity.
Matt Holwill
Matt is a geospatial data scientist with a specialty in machine learning.
Casey Whitworth
Casey is a first year Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. student. Her research is working to integrate multi-model, space-based remote sensing for coastal studies. Casey has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University.