Frank Lagor

Frank Lagor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. He joined UVA in 2023 after serving as faculty at the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research focuses on estimation and control for autonomous systems interacting with fluid environments, including gust mitigation in aerospace systems and bio-inspired flow sensing for robotics.

Dr. Lagor holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland (2017), with prior degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (M.S., 2009) and Villanova University (B.S., 2006). Before academia, he worked at Lockheed Martin as a Certified Principal Engineer for satellite solar array systems.

His research interests emphasize unsteady flow estimation, optimal maneuver design in gust encounters, and reduced-order modeling techniques. Key contributions include sensor placement strategies for data-driven flow estimation and closed-loop control methodologies for autonomous underwater vehicles.

He has received prestigious awards including the AFOSR Young Investigator Award (2021) and UB SEAS Early Career Teacher of the Year (2020). Courses taught include advanced control systems theory, dynamics, and stochastic estimation methods.