A naval officer and aviator from 1988-1999, Mary "Missy" Cummings was one of the U.S. Navy's first female fighter pilots. She is now the director of George Mason University's Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) and a professor at George Mason. She recently served as the senior safety advisor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Dr Cummings received her BS in Mathematics from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1988, her MS in Space Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1994, and her PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2004.

Image: George Mason University