Luke Peterson

Biography

Dr. Peterson joined the University as an assistant professor in Fall 2025. He received his doctorate from the Ann & H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he developed the concept of local orbital elements in the restricted 3-body problem.

Dr. Peterson's primary research areas are celestial mechanics, dynamical systems, and astrodynamics. In particular, he is interested in improving the computational capabilities of researchers in each area, as well as supporting connections between these fields. On the one hand, space mission design saw great advancements in the early 2000s by adopting techniques of dynamical systems theory, and he supports the continuation of developing and applying advanced methods for computing invariant manifolds and normal forms to the underlying Hamiltonian dynamical systems. On the other hand, there are many mathematics problems arising from cislunar astrodynamics and solar system dynamics, including some of the most foundational questions in dynamical systems, which can be proved by means of computer-assisted techniques. Thus, Dr. Peterson's work connects the two ends of this spectrum from Applied Mathematics (celestial mechanics & dynamical systems) to Aerospace Engineering (astrodynamics), with a focus on computing.

Google Scholar