Dr. Thomas Barrera – NESC Academy Biography
Dr. Thomas (Tom) P. Barrera, is currently President, Lithium-Ion Battery (LIB)-X Consulting an independent technical consulting firm specializing in the development, design, manufacturing, test, and safety engineering of LIB power systems.
Previously, Tom was a Technical Fellow for The Boeing Co., battery R&D test engineer at The Aerospace Corporation, and fuel cell systems engineer at the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. During his 19 yr. career at The Boeing Co., Tom led multidisciplinary teams in the end-to-end development of advanced electrical power and battery energy storage systems supporting programs such as Space Shuttle, International Space Station, TDRS, GOES, GPS, Global-MD, C-17, X-37B, Boeing-787, CST-100 Starliner, Space Launch System, and numerous other commercial and proprietary satellite programs. As a Boeing Co. Technical Fellow, Tom received numerous team and individual awards for program execution, technical innovation, knowledge management, and customer satisfaction.
As an industry member of the NASA Engineering Safety Center, Tom serves as a project lead for various technical assessments of lithium battery power system performance and safety in on-orbit spacecraft applications. Under contract to John Wiley & Sons, Tom is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief to publish the first-ever technical reference book titled, “Spacecraft Lithium-Ion Battery Power Systems”, on aerospace lithium-ion batteries (forthcoming 1Q, 2023). Frequently invited to speak and lecture at domestic and international conferences, Tom has over 50 combined conference presentations and publications including 3 US patents in the area of aviation battery safety.
Under the direction of Dr. Ken Nobe, Tom received his PhD in Chemical Engr. at UCLA and then worked for Dr. Bruce Dunn as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the UCLA Materials Science and Engr. Dept. Tom also received a MS in Industrial Engr. & Mgt. Sciences from Northwestern University, BS in Chemical Engr. (Cum Laude) and BA in Mathematics-Economics from UCSB. Tom is an elected member-at-large for the Battery Division of The Electrochemical Society, is an AIAA Associate Technical Fellow, and member of the Materials Research Society. While a student at UCLA (1994/G-15 & 1995/G-16), Tom was selected as a Mission Specialist Semi-Finalist for the NASA Space Shuttle Program.
Tom resides in Long Beach, CA with his wife Joan and 2 cats.