Brent Barbee is an Aerospace Engineer currently working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and adjunct faculty in the University of Maryland's Department of Aerospace Engineering, where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses. His current work includes serving as a member of the Investigation Team for NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft mission, leading interagency spacecraft mission design research for planetary defense against hazardous asteroids and comets, serving as the technical lead for NASA's Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS), and serving as a chair of the International Academy of Astronautics Planetary Defense Conference series. His prior work includes serving on the Flight Dynamics Team for NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, serving on the 2017 NASA Near-Earth Object Science Definition Team, and being an author of the U.S. National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan. Main-belt asteroid 120208 was renamed "Brentbarbee" in honor of his contributions to asteroid missions and planetary defense. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.