Dr. Alexander Leonessa is a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Leonessa manages the Dynamics, Control, and Cognition cluster within the Directorate for Engineering's Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI). Additionally, he is responsible for overseeing the CMMI’s involvement with the Major Research Instrumentation program. Dr. Leonessa served as a professor at Virginia Tech in the Mechanical Engineering Department. During his