Zachary G. Pirtle, Ph.D.

Zachary Gallagher Pirtle, Ph.D., is a researcher, engineer, and policy entrepreneur. He has served as an engineer at NASA Headquarters since 2010, was a Fulbright scholar, wrote NASA’s white paper on responsible exploration, and has maintained active research publications in systems engineering, philosophy and science policy. He seeks to integrate engineering, philosophy and policy to improve how large-scale sociotechnical systems serve society.

He is the co-chair of the steering committee for the Forum on Philosophy, Engineering and Technology (fPET), which has a mission to bring together philosophy and engineering for the mutual benefit of both. He co-chaired the 2018 fPET at the University of Maryland, College Park, as well as the 2024 fPET at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He has been engaged with the fPET community since its inception at the 2007 Workshop on Philosophy of Engineering at TU-Delft. All fPET work is done in his personal capacity*. 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 (link here).

Research: 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). Several publications are listed below, and all can be found on google scholar.

Education: 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).

Engineering for Lunar Discovery and Exploration: Pirtle has worked at NASA as an engineer civil servant since 2010. He is currently 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 in the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. 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.

Policy Leadership: Pirtle has also led major policy initiatives from within NASA. From June 2022 to December 2024, he 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. For this work, Pirtle received a 2024 NASA Excellence in Innovation award, as well as a 2025 Group Achievement award to the Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications Team.

Teaching: In Fall 2020, 2021 and 2022, he was 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. He infused sociotechnical and policy concepts into the course, which focused on using the concept of the systems engineering life cycles and related tools for systems engineering practice.

Science fiction to inform science policy: His interests also touch on science fiction and how it can help us better deliberate on what future we want with engineering and technology. This 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. In 2025, he published a new paper on Neal Stephenson’s novel Anathem, which discusses scientist monks as a metaphor for how science and society should relate.

Career advice: Zach was once interviewed by David Storey for the Wisdom at Work podcast, which profiles philosophers outside of academia. That conversation can be found here, and a transcript here. He also contributed to this guide on how to get policy jobs.

*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. Except when noted in the publication, he performs much of his work as an independent scholar. 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.

Research papers about engineering knowledge and innovation studies:

Stacey, M., Eckert, C., Pirtle, Zachary G.*, Poznic, M., Schuelke-Leech, B.A. and von der Tann, L., 2025. Methods as a form of engineering knowledge. Design Science, 11, p.e12.

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. Link.

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, Zachary; Unity of Engineering Disciplines. 2020. The Bridge: Linking Engineering and Society. National Academy of Engineering. Available at: https://www.nae.edu/244705/Unity-of-Engi

On model independence and reducing uncertainty through multi-model estimates:

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. Link

• Has over 100 citations on google scholar, commonly used as a reference to advocate for ensuring independence across model ensembles.

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. Link

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.

Papers on responsible exploration and how engineers should consider ethical, legal and societal implications:

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

Pirtle, Z, Hernandez, A. and Riegle, N. 2024. Responsible Exploration: Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications of the Artemis campaign and NASA’s Moon to Mars Architecture. 2024 Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review White Paper. Link

Pirtle, Zachary; 2021. Book Review of Social Science for What? Battles over Public Funding for the ‘Other Sciences’ at the National Science Foundation: by Mark Solovey. Journal for Responsible Innovation. Link.

Selected papers about engineering and democracy, focusing on contrasting Participatory Technology Assessment and Kitcher’s framework for Well-Ordered Science: 

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

On the use of science fiction to inform science policy:

Pirtle, Zachary G., 2025. Science and Society in the Long View: Neal Stephenson’s Anathem as a Simulation of the Governance of Science. SFRA Review. 55:2. Pp. 35-54. Science Fiction Research Association.

Older, Malka; and Zachary Pirtle. 2021. Imagined Systems: How the Speculative Novel Infomocracy Offers a Simulation of the Relationship Between Democracy, Technology, and Society. In: Zachary Pirtle et al (eds): Engineering and Philosophy: Reimagining Technology and Social Progress. (pp. 323-339). Springer Press.

Pirtle, Z., 2022. Humans, Machines, and an Ethics for Technology in Dune. In: K. Decker (editor) Dune and Philosophy: Minds, Monads, and Muad'Dib, pp.76-86.

Pirtle, Z. 2016. Rogue One as an Engineering Ethics Case Study. Scifipolicy.com. https://www.scifipolicy.com/blog/2016/12/18/rogue-one-an-engineering-ethics-story