Daniel Polis, PhD

Director, CRS2 Spacecraft
Sierra Nevada Corporation, Space Systems

Dr. Daniel Polis currently serves as the Director of the Dream Chaser® Cargo System Spacecraft for Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) in Louisville, CO. In this role he manages a team of engineers responsible for the design of a spacecraft planned for orbital flight, International Space Station services, re-entry and reuse. This includes the design of Environmental Control and Life Support Systems, Electrical Harnessing, Fluid and Gas Delivery Systems, Mechanical Systems, Primary and Secondary Structures, Propulsion, Thermal Control Systems, and Thermal Protection Systems. Prior to this role, he served as the Spacecraft Design Manager and Structures Subsystem Lead since his arrival at SNC in 2012.

Before coming to Colorado, Dr. Polis spent 10 years at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. At NASA he played an integral role in the development of several one-of-kind composite structures, including the NESC’s Composite Crew Module, the cryogenic composite metering structure on the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Super-Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier, which carried The Hubble Space Telescope’s new instruments to low earth orbit on STS-125.

Prior to NASA, Dr. Polis worked for General Electric, where he was program leader for the ceramic technology group in the Lighting Division in Cleveland, OH. Here, he and his colleagues developed novel ceramic forming processes and materials, as applied to high intensity discharge lamps, which led to several patented technologies.

Dr. Polis earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from The University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. degree in Chemistry from The College of William and Mary.