• 2018 HENAAC Luminary •

Daniel Alvarez recently joined Millennium Space Systems as the Space Mission Program manager.  The Boeing Company completed the acquisition of Millennium, a provider of agile, flight-proven small satellite solutions which now operates as a subsidiary of Boeing’s Phantom Works.

In this new role, Mr. Alvarez is poised to continue his impressive 10-year career at The Boeing Company.  In his previous assignment as the Integrated Product Lead of the Design Integration Team for Boeing’s new multi-spacecraft, high-development STP-3, he assumed responsibility for the largest hardware budget ($300 million) and execution team (50 engineers and technicians) to date in his stellar career.

Prior to that, Mr. Alvarez was the Antenna Mechanical Responsible Engineering Authority for the new IntelSat 37e program, the Antenna Feeds IPT Lead on NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, and the mechanical design engineer on National Programs.  He also served as the Responsible Manufacturing Authority on the US Navy’s Mobile User Objective System legacy ultra-high frequency payload.

With one patent already pending, Mr. Alvarez was honored with a Boeing World Class Engineer award and was inducted into the company’s LX leadership development program. He won first place in the Boeing Company’s Additive Manufacturing Innovation Challenge last year and was one of the only non-military employees to be awarded a Boeing-Naval Postgraduate School Fellowship

A fervent supporter of STEM education, Mr. Alvarez is a member of the Caltech Alumni Advisory Network, and the founder and CEO of QuestionWell, Inc., an online math e-tutoring startup. He is also an active volunteer in local community activities.

He inherited his love of education from his Ecuadorian-born father – who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas – and Costa Rican mother who has a Master’s degree in teaching. Their inspiration led to a precocious interest in science, as well as two consecutive best-in-show wins at the DelTech Science Expo beginning at the age of 12.

Mr. Alvarez has managed to earn two master’s and bachelor’s degrees each: an M.S. in Astronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School; an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California; and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and in Business, Economics, and Management from California Institute of Technology.