George Hazelrigg

George Hazelrigg is an adjunct professor and affiliate faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at George Mason University. Hazelrigg obtained BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and his MA, MSE, and PhD degrees in aerospace engineering from Princeton University. He worked for six years in the aerospace industry at Curtiss-Wright, General Dynamics, and the Jet Propulsion Lab, and taught engineering at NJIT, Princeton University, University of California at San Diego, Polytechnic University, Ajou University in Korea, and École de Technologie Supérieure in Montreal. 

In the early 1970s, he helped form a consulting company where he worked for seven years. In 1982, he joined the National Science Foundation. For the next 35 years, he ran seven research programs in four different divisions, and served as deputy division director and acting division director for the Division of Electrical, Communications, and Systems Engineering (ECSE) and the Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI), and oversaw annual research budgets of up to $210 million. In January 1996, he was the station science leader of the U.S. South Pole Station.

Hazelrigg's area of research is systems engineering and engineering design decision-making. He also offers courses on engineering decision-making and research proposal writing.

Degrees

• PhD, Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
• MSE, Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
• MA, Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
• MS, Mechanical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology
• BS, Mechanical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology 

Current Projects

“Toward a Theory of Systems Engineering,” supported by the National Science Foundation. The focus of this work is to provide a rigorous mathematical underpinning of systems engineering. The research examines the requirements for design optimization and the implication of these requirements on systems engineering methods, analyses, processes, and procedures, and it provides a validity test on these activities.