Dr. Alvin G. Yew

Alvin G. Yew, Ph.D. is Program Manager at NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC).
 
Alvin has a diverse and rewarding background as an aerospace engineer with over a decade of accumulated experience at Goddard Space Flight Center. He has participated in hardware development for missions including Astro-H, MMS, GPM, and FASTSat. He has also directed numerous research efforts to conceive and validate novel spaceflight capabilities, particularly for Guidance, Navigation, and Control components on small satellite architectures.
 
He has demonstrated cutting-edge hardware with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program through zero-gravity parabolic flights, developed early-stage ice sampling mechanisms for planetary science research, and worked in McMurdo Antarctica to upgrade NASA’s communications network.
 
Alvin coauthored Lab-on-chip clinorotation system for live-cell microscopy under simulated microgravity, Effects of angular frequency during clinorotation on mesenchymal stem cell morphology and migration, Low Peclet number mass and momentum transport in microcavities, and Role of load history in intervertebral disc mechanics and intradiscal pressure generation.
 
Alvin completed his doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland and at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where he performed research in space biology. His dissertation was Clinorotation time-lapse microscopy for live-cell assays in simulated microgravity.
 
Watch NASA NIAC interview.