PeopleofSuperintelligence

Lab leader

Marco Pavone

Marco Pavone is a Stanford professor and NVIDIA research director who leads work on autonomous systems and physical AI. He earned a doctorate at MIT in 2010 and worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before Stanford hired him in 2012. His work spans spacecraft motion planning, small-body robots, and artificial-intelligence planning for autonomous cars. In December 2025, he coauthored Alpamayo-R1, a vision-language-action model for autonomous driving.

Works
594
Citations
16,095
h-index
62

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2010–2012

    From MIT and JPL to Stanford

    He earns a PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT in 2010. Before joining Stanford, he works as a Research Technologist in the Robotics Section at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Stanford hires him as an assistant professor in 2012.

  2. 2012

    Spacecraft motion planning

    In 2012, he receives NASA's Early Career Faculty grant to develop algorithms for spacecraft motion planning and autonomous maneuvering in dynamic, cluttered environments.

  3. 2014

    Spacecraft-rover hybrids

    In 2014, he outlines a mission architecture for exploring small Solar System bodies with spacecraft-rover hybrids.

  4. 2015

    Hedgehog microgravity tests

    In 2015, NASA tests Stanford and JPL Hedgehog prototypes in microgravity. Pavone leads the Stanford team, whose robots demonstrate controlled hopping and tumbling for travel across small bodies.

  5. 2019

    AI planning for autonomous cars

    In 2019, he applies artificial intelligence to planning and decision algorithms for autonomous cars that face unpredictable road behavior.

  6. December 2025

    Alpamayo-R1 for driving

    In December 2025, he coauthors Alpamayo-R1, a vision-language-action model that combines Chain of Causation reasoning with trajectory planning for decisions in complex driving scenarios.

  7. As of October 2026

    Leading NVIDIA's ASPIRE group

    As of October 2026, he is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford and directs its Autonomous Systems Laboratory. He is also Director of Autonomous Vehicle Research at NVIDIA and leads the ASPIRE Group, whose work develops algorithmic foundations for intelligent autonomous systems in the physical world.

Sources and credits

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  1. Marco Pavone's Profile | Stanford Profiles profiles.stanford.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Engineering’s Senesky and Pavone Win NASA Early Career Awards engineering.stanford.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Spacecraft/Rover Hybrids for the Exploration of Small Solar System Bodies - NASA nasa.gov. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. 'Hedgehog' Robots Hop, Tumble in Microgravity | NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) jpl.nasa.gov. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Marco Pavone: Autonomous cars will have to manage unpredictable road behavior | Stanford University School of Engineering engineering.stanford.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Alpamayo-R1: Bridging Reasoning and Action Prediction for Generalizable Autonomous Driving in the Long Tail | NVIDIA ASPIRE Group research.nvidia.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Marco Pavone | Research research.nvidia.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. NVIDIA ASPIRE Group research.nvidia.com. Checked 14 October 2026.