Junzi Sun, Ph.D.

About Me

I am a researcher passionate about making air transportation more open and more sustainable . Currently, I am an assistant professor at TU Delft, working and researching in the domain of air traffic management at the Aerospace Engineering Faculty.

I am also one of the Principal Investigators for the Sustainable Aviation Lab, at the Aerospace Engineering Faculty at TU Delft, dealing with aviation environmental impact assessment and providing solutions to reduce flight emissions.

I have authored the book The 1090 Megahertz Riddle. I enjoy creating open-source tools, including pyModeS and OpenAP, which are among the most popular open tools for air traffic management research.

Research interests

Air traffic management
Aviation sustainability
Data science and AI
Emission modeling, assessment, and mitigation
Policy for future air-ground transport

Research links

Teaching at university

AE4321 (2020-present): Air Traffic Management
IFEEMCS520100 (2022-present): Fundamentals of AI
TI3150TU (2021-present): Capstone Applied AI project
AE2223 (2017-present): Test, Analysis and Simulation
CS4305TU (2020-2021): Applied Machine Learning
AE3200 (2020-2021): Design Synthesis

Open mini-courses

Work experience

2022 - present: Tenured Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
2019 - 2022: Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
2015 - 2019: PhD Candidate, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
2012 - 2015: Academic Program Coordinator, International Space University, Strasbourg, France
2011 - 2012: Aerospace Researcher, ASCAMM Technology Centre, Barcelona, Spain
2007 - 2011: Aerospace Engineer & IT Manager, Barcelona Aerospace Technology Centre, Spain

Education

2015 - 2019: Ph.D. in Air Traffic Management, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. (dissertation: Open aircraft performance modeling)
2007 - 2010: M.Sc. of Aerospace Science and Technology, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona.
2003 - 2007: B.Sc. of Electronic and Information Technology, Beijing University of Post and Telecommunication, Beijing, China.

Awards and scholarships

2022: Embassy Science Fellowship, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs / NWO (more info) (video on Erasmus-Descartes Conference)
2022: Best paper award, 10th International Conference on Research in Air Transportation (first author, paper)
2020: Best paper award, 9th International Conference on Research in Air Transportation (first author, paper)
2019: SESAR Young Scientist Award, SESAR Joint Undertaking (more info)
2017: Best paper award, 12th USA/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar

Other activities

TU Delft data champion / open science community member (2019-present)
Workers council, AE personnel committee member (2020-present)
OpenSky Symposium: general chair (2022), program chair (2021), program committee (2020-present)
Open Aviation Data initiative
Curator and editor-in-chief of Journal of Open Aviation Science