About Us
Michigan Aerospace Corporation (MAC) develops and commercializes technology, from basic and applied R&D to licensing and business creation. R&D efforts include government and industry contract work, internally-funded innovation, and technology incubation. We license our technology to strategic partners for product acceleration and also license intellectual property from 3rd parties. We offer business creation and commercialization services to pursue product development in meaningful markets.
Meet Our Team
Peter Tchoryk Jr.
Chief Executive Officer
Peter Tchoryk is the Chief Executive Officer of Michigan Aerospace Corporation and is responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of the company. He is also the President and Co-Founder of OptoAtmospherics, Inc., a start-up company dedicated to providing wind/atmospheric measurement products for the wind energy industry. Opto is commercializing technology from Michigan Aerospace Corporation. He has over 24 years experience in developing and leading the development of advanced technology, including optical and electro-optical systems for satellite, aircraft (fixed and rotary wing), and ship-based platforms, sensors for military and commercial applications, as well as software systems development. He has been involved in every aspect of the technology development cycle, from conceptual design through manufacturing and implementation in the field. Mr. Tchoryk is also on the Board of Directors for Acousys Biodevices, Inc. Founded in March 2011, Acousys is developing groundbreaking technology for the identification and capture of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) and pathogens. Mr. Tchoryk has cross-functional experience spanning domestic and international business development, strategic business planning and forecasting, engineering operations, project management, and engineering development, including six patents granted and two pending. He received his Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1994 and his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from GMI (Kettering University) in 1986.
Jane Pavlich
President and COO
Jane Pavlich is a company President and MAC’s Chief Operating Officer. She has over 25 years of experience in program management and systems engineering and is experienced in product development programs. Her involvement in the atmospheric LIDAR development programs has spanned ground-based stations, airborne optical air data systems, high altitude balloon platforms, wind turbine applications, and atmospheric measurements to support hypersonic vehicle testing. She has been involved in all phases of design, test, installation and verification of these LIDAR systems. She was the program manager for the Autonomous Satellite Docking System (ASDS) program, a project that designed, developed and tested a docking mechanism under a DARPA Phase II SBIR. She is a co-inventor on various docking system patents. Additional space robotics experience includes system analysis, production planning, software development, test and mission preparation for the Automated Wafer Cartridge System, a mechanism designed to transfer and process semiconductor wafers in space. She is a key member in bid and proposal efforts and is involved in strategic planning, financial oversight, program management and operations.
Dr. Will Johnson
Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Will Johnson, Chief Technology Officer, and a research scientist at Michigan Aerospace Corporation, manages MAC’s LIDAR business unit. He has 10+ years of experience in all aspects of the design and development of optical remote sensing systems and has managed multiple government grants developing novel remote sensing technologies. During his graduate education he developed an infrared scanning differential absorption LIDAR for identifying carbon dioxide leakages at sequestration sites. He was also invited to be a key member in the development of an infrared integrated path differential absorption lidar at NASA Langley Research Center for measuring carbon dioxide from an aircraft.
Dr. Mike Fan
VP of Commercialization
Dr. Mike Fan is VP of Commercialization at Michigan Aerospace Corporation and Springmatter. He has extensive experience developing and commercializing optical sensors over the past decade. At Honeywell Aerospace, he led the launch of a new line of atmospheric LiDAR products for the aerospace industry. He also worked as a DOE ARPA-E consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, supporting program development, active program management, and technology to market efforts.
Chad Lewis
VP of Software Development
Mr. Chad Lewis is Vice President of Software Development at Michigan Aerospace and SpringMatter. He has over two decades of experience designing and implementing software for information management, financial, biomedical, and remote sensing applications. He has worked for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and PerkinElmer to develop Laboratory Information Management systems. At Michigan Aerospace Corporation, Chad has spearheaded the development of the remote operation platform for the control of long and short-range atmospheric sensing LIDAR systems for the Air Force, Department of Energy, and other government organizations. He leads a team of developers to apply machine learning techniques for object detection and classification.
Dr. Paul B. Hays
Co-Founder, Director
Dr. Paul Hays is a world-renowned expert of the atmospheric and space sciences. He has been a professor at the University of Michigan in the Aerospace Engineering, and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences departments for over 30 years. His research includes many revolutionary programs such as the following NASA scientific missions: the Visual Airglow Experiment flown on the Atmosphere Explorer -C, -D, -E; the Fabry-Perot Interferometer on Dynamics Explorer 2; and the High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS).
Dr. Hays is a pioneer in the worlds of atmospheric phenomenology and interferometry. He has received numerous awards and honors for his innovative work and has embraced both academic and corporate challenges throughout his career.
Dr. Lennard A. Fisk
Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board
Dr. Lennard Fisk is the Thomas M. Donahue Distinguished University Professor of Space Sciences in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan, where he also served as Chair from 1993-2003. Prior to joining the University, Dr. Fisk was the Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In this position he was responsible for the planning and direction of all NASA programs concerned with space science and applications and for the institutional management of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Prior to becoming Associate Administrator in April 1987, Dr. Fisk served as Vice President for Research and Financial Affairs at the University of New Hampshire. In this position, he was responsible for the administration of the University research activities and was the chief financial officer of the University. Dr. Fisk joined the faculty of the Department of Physics at the University of New Hampshire in 1977, and founded the Solar-Terrestrial Theory Group in 1980. He was an astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from 1971 to 1977, and a National Academy of Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Goddard from 1969 to 1971.