James DeLaurier has worked as an aerospace engineer, consultant, and professor. He received his PhD from Stanford University and has worked at McDonnell Aircraft, the NASA Ames Research Center, the Sheldahl Company, and Battelle Memorial Institute. Until his retirement in 2006, Dr. DeLaurier was a professor at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS). His research topics have included aircraft design, lighter-than-air flight vehicles (airships and aerostats), flapping-wing aircraft, and remotely-piloted microwave-powered aircraft.