OERI Announces Appointment of Dr. Yiannis Papelis as new Executive Director of the Virginia Institute for Spaceflight and Autonomy (VISA)

Suffolk, VA (January 23, 2024) – The ODU Office of Enterprise Research and Innovation (OERI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Yiannis Papelis as the interim Executive Director of the Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy (VISA).  He succeeds Dr. David Bowles who is retiring after leading VISA for four years. VISA is a research business unit that operates under the OERI.

Dr. Papelis brings a wealth of technical and leadership experience to the position. Dr. Papelis has been with OERI and VMASC for over 15 years.  He started as a Research Associate professor and quickly built a successful research program in the areas of behavior modeling, autonomous agent behaviors in agent-based simulation, and immersive virtual environments with sponsors including the National Institute of Aerospace, NASA, US Navy, and U.S. Joint Forces Command. 

Dr. Bowles’ years of service to ODU were preceded by 39 years of service at the NASA Langley Research Center where he was Center Director for the last five years of that tenure and his rofessional contributions led to his selection as VISA’s Executive Director in 2019, when VISA made its official launch. He has agreed to continue contributing to VISA as a Senior Research Fellow on a part-time basis.

VISA is chartered to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem of autonomy and space-flight related activities in the region. VISA, through industry academic and governmental agency partnerships, leverages Virginia’s world-class assets in autonomous systems, space flight, modeling and simulation and data science to solve real-world problems.

Dr. Eric Weisel, Senior Associate Vice President for Applied Research, while announcing the appointment said: “We’re delighted to welcome Dr. Papelis into this role. He has huge shoes to fill. Dr. Bowles cannot be replaced but I am confident that research efforts under the leadership of Dr. Papelis will continue to grow VISA and support its mission to be the hub of Virginia’s world-class assets in aerospace, autonomous systems, and modeling and simulation to solve real-world problems.”

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About OERI: The Office of Enterprise Research and Innovation (OER) is Virginia’s premier university research center of Old Dominion University focusing on applied research leading to digital transformation. Staffed by over one hundred faculty, scientists, and support staff, OERI provides modeling and simulation, analytic research, and technological support for partners across various industry, government, and community sectors. Building upon years of success, OERI was developed and oversees five research enterprises.

About VISA: The Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy (VISA) is chartered to grow the entrepreneurial ecosystems for space flight and autonomy within the Office of Enterprise Research and Innovation. The Institute is the hub to leverage Virginia’s world-class assets in space launch, autonomous systems, modeling and simulation and data science to solve real-world problems. Through industry, academic and governmental agency partnerships, VISA’s vision is to create an environment of research, technology, commercialization, and educational opportunities to grow the spaceflight and autonomous systems industry.