Kurt Polzin is chief engineer for NASA’s Space Nuclear Propulsion Office, which is managed at Marshall Space Flight Center and includes all the agency’s nuclear propulsion technology development and maturation efforts and the NASA/DARPA DRACO - Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations - program.

Polzin received his bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the Ohio State University and his doctorate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University. He joined NASA in 2004 as a propulsion research engineer and was previously the Space Systems Team Lead in Marshall’s Advanced Concepts Office.

Polzin has authored or co-authored over 140 publications, including a recently published monograph. He holds six U.S. patents and is frequently invited to deliver lectures and participate in panel sessions at major technical conferences, forums, and universities. Since joining NASA, he has been a teacher and mentor to dozens of students, hosting undergraduate and graduate student interns at NASA Marshall and advising over a dozen doctoral candidates from institutions across the country. He has also been an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville for many years, teaching graduate-level courses in physics and engineering.

Polzin’s AIAA honors include Engineer of the Year, the Plasmadynamics and Lasers Award, the Sustained Service Award, and the Greater Huntsville Section's Martin Schilling Outstanding Service and Earl Pearce Professional of the Year awards. He has multiple NASA Patent, Special Service, and Group Achievement awards. Polzin is an associate fellow of AIAA and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and in 2023 he was selected to receive the Alumni Award of Distinction from Rossford, Ohio, Schools.