Zachary Pirtle, Ph.D.

Zachary Pirtle, Ph.D., is a researcher, engineer, and policy entrepreneur.

He co-chaired the 2018 meeting of the Forum on Philosophy, Engineering and Technology (fPET). He has been engaged with the fPET community since its inception at the 2007 Workshop on Philosophy of Engineering at TU-Delft. With Guru Madhavan and David Tomblin, he co-edited the book Engineering and Philosophy: Reimagining Technology and Social Progress, published in 2021 by Springer Press (site here).

His research contributions have ranged from developing a framework for assessing independence among multiple models to help mitigate uncertainty (Pirtle et al, 2018, Pirtle et al 2010), exploring the difference between scientific and engineering models (Pirtle 2010) as well as studying  the relationship between law- and non-law-based epistemologies and perceived views on engineering and innovation policy (Pirtle 2013). Separately, he has also researched what role of democratically determined values should have in engineering, including efforts to use public input in engineering decisions (Pirtle and Szajnfarber 2017, Pirtle and Tomblin 2017, Bertrand et al 2017). 

He earned his Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from George Washington University, working with Zoe Szajnfarber, and had the philosopher of science Jay Odenbaugh as a committee member. Pirtle earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, B.A. in Philosophy, and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Arizona State University. While at ASU he did research with the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. Previously, he studied in Mexico as a Fulbright Scholar (2008); and served as a Mirzayan Fellow at the National Academy of Engineering (2009). All of his publications are listed on google scholar, with selected papers shown below.

Separate from his academic research, Pirtle is an engineer and program executive at NASA Headquarters in the Science Mission Directorate. He leads non-traditional commercial approaches to get science and technology payloads to the moon. He previously served as a program integration engineer at NASA headquarters, which he joined in 2010 as a civil servant. His work there supported integration for the Space Launch System, Orion spacecraft and associated ground systems. He also served NASA’s Strategic Investments Division, providing technical, strategic and policy guidance for NASA’s exploration programs, and performed major programmatic assessments of the James Webb Space Telescope and Space Launch System. He was a 2020 winner of the NASA Agency Early Career Achievement Medal. More information on my professional work can be found here.

Since June 2022, he has also served as a part-time detailee to the NASA Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, for a project on the ethical and societal implications of NASA’s Artemis efforts. He was the study lead and first author for a report, Artemis, Ethics and Society: Synthesis from a Workshop, which was released September 23rd, 2023, and is described here. NASA interviewed him about the effort on the Small Steps, Giant Leaps podcast, linked here.

Zach was once interviewed by David Storey for the Wisdom at Work podcast, which looks at philosophy outside of academia. That conversation can be found here, and a transcript here.

In Fall semesters, he is a part-time adjunct professor in George Washington University’s Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, teaching EMSE 6801 Systems Engineering I to graduate students.

His interests also touch on science fiction and how it can help us better deliberate on what future we want with technology. This most recently led to a paper on the ethics of technology in Dune as well as a co-authored paper with the science fiction author Malka Older, focusing on how the novel Infomocracy can help us explore our desired policy futures.

Pirtle's claims and involvement with fPET are made in his personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the views of NASA or the United States Government. He can be reached via the fPET2018 email philengineering2018@gmail.com or the philosophy and engineering twitter account, @phil_engineer, which he curates. Photo credit: Bill Ingalls.

Selected papers about engineering and/or epistemology:

Pirtle, Z. and Moore, J., 2019. Where does innovation come from?: Project hindsight, TRACEs, and what structured case studies can say about innovation. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 38(3), pp.56-67.

Pirtle, Z and Hamilton, A.L., Odenbaugh, J., Szajnfarber, Z. 2018. "Engineering Model Independence: A Strategy to Encourage Independence Among Models." Techné: research in philosophy and technology. 22:2. pp. 191-229. DOI: 10.5840/techne201862283

Pirtle, Z. and Odenbaugh, J., Szajnfarber, Z. 2018. "'The One, the Few or the Many?': Using Independence as a Strategy in Engineering Development and Modeling." In: Albrecht Fritzsche and Sascha Oks (eds) The Future of Engineering: Philosophical Foundations, Ethical Problems and Application Cases. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, 31. Springer International Publishing. pp. 13-31.

Pirtle, Z., 2010. "How the models of engineering tell the truth" in: Ibo van de Poel and David Goldberg (eds) Philosophy of engineering: an Emerging Agenda. Springer Netherlands. pp. 95-108. DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-2804-4_9

Pirtle, Z., 2013. "Engineering Innovation: Energy, Policy, and the Role of Engineering". In: Michelfelder D., McCarthy N., Goldberg D. (eds) Philosophy and Engineering: Reflections on Practice, Principles and Process. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 15. Springer, Dordrechtt. (pp. 377-390).

Pirtle, Z., Meyer, R. and Hamilton, A., 2010. "What does it mean when climate models agree? A case for assessing independence among general circulation models." Environmental science & policy, 13(5), pp.351-361.

Selected papers about engineering, ethics and democracy: 

Pirtle, Z, and K. McBrayer, A. Beauchemin. 2023. Artemis, Ethics and Society: Synthesis from a Workshop. NASA Report # 20230012799. Link.

Bertrand, P. and Pirtle, Z., D. Tomblin. 2017 "Participatory Technology Assessment for Mars
Mission Planning: Public Values and Rationales" Space Policy. 42. pp. 41-53. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.spacepol.2017.08.004

Tomblin, David and Zachary Pirtle, et al. 2017, "Integrating Public Deliberation into Engineering Systems: Participatory Technology Assessment of NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission." Astropolitics. 15:2. Pp. 141-166

Pirtle, Zachary and Zoe Szajnfarber. 2017. “On Ideals for Engineering in Democratic
Societies.” In: Michelfelder, D., B. Newberry, Q. Zhu (eds). Philosophy and Engineering,
vol 26. Springer Philosophy of Engineering and Technology series. P. 99-112

Pirtle, Z and D. Tomblin. 2017. "Well-Ordered Engineering? Participatory Technology Assessment at NASA." in: Joe Pitt and Ashley Shew (eds), Spaces for the Future: a Companion to the Philosophy of Technology. Routledge University Press. pp. 314-325