Matt Fronzak: Connecting the Dots

Matt Fronzak's career has given him a front-row seat at the intersection of two rapidly evolving fields: meteorology and aviation.

One of only about a dozen degreed meteorologists at MITRE, Fronzak describes his job as "a lot of reading, writing, thinking, and meeting," and he enjoys all of it.

"It feels good to work for a not-for-profit, knowing that our work and recommendations are motivated by service for the public good," he says. "It's also fun, because everything I work on is interesting. And I like that I can apply my 34 years of practical experience to the challenges facing aviation today."

He’s talking about his decades-long career with Delta Air Lines, where he worked in multiple roles—from weather analyst, aircraft dispatcher, and air traffic control coordinator to manager within the airline's Flight Control department, where he was responsible for the Delta Meteorology group, among others.

When planes hit New York’s Twin Towers on 9/11, Fronzak was the senior Flight Control manager on duty. He watched in awe as airline, airport, and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) personnel worked in concert to safely shut down the National Airspace System (NAS) in the span of a couple of hours.

Shortly before retiring from Delta in 2008, he earned a master's in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. A year later, he brought all that experience and expertise to MITRE.

Airline and Meteorological Expertise Offer a Winning Combination

"MITRE recruited me not just for my meteorological expertise, but because I also had a broad background in commercial aviation operations," he says. "To be successful here, I continually have to leverage what I did in my career at Delta."

That's the case, he says, even though the field of meteorology today is much different than it was 30 or 40 years ago.

"Today, we have better data and better tools, so we can make earlier and more accurate forecasts." And that translates into improved planning to mitigate weather's impact on aviation. "That's a big deal, since weather accounts for a majority of the delays in the National Airspace System."

A Changing NAS Requires New Weather Research and Coordination

Other aspects of aviation are also rapidly changing. New types of vehicles are coming on the scene, presenting new weather information needs. Some of them, like drones and advanced air mobility vehicles, will require microscale weather information in urban environments to safely scale their operations. And commercial space operators need more wind and weather forecast information at the altitudes where their vehicles launch and fly.

Fronzak follows the aviation weather research affecting all those arenas and more.

The NAS is evolving in other ways, too, with vehicles becoming more and more connected—to one another and to ground-based systems—for sharing information. The FAA recently launched an effort to create a weather strategy that takes advantage of that increased interconnectivity to exchange weather information and help mitigate weather’s impact on aviation.

"I've been asked to take part, and I'm very excited about what we might achieve, especially as it relates to integrating weather information more effectively into air traffic management tools," Fronzak says.

Another new project that sparks his interest is Radar Next, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) initiative to replace the nation's aging weather radar network by 2040. The new system will support not only the National Weather Service's ability to track weather and issue storm warnings in a timely fashion, but it will also be used to support the safe and efficient operation of commercial and military aviation.

"As an aviation meteorologist, I have a very small role to play, but I'm guarding it jealously because I really want to be part of this important project," Fronzak says.

As if those activities weren’t enough, Fronzak also has leadership roles with several organizations, which he enjoys since he sees one of his primary talents as a "connector of dots."

"Aviation weather is a very wide-ranging field. It affects multiple institutions, and it crosses lines of business within those organizations. Consequently, connecting individuals, ideas, and research and coordinating the sharing of information is a needed skill. It's one of my most satisfying roles."

It’s also a MITRE specialty. "As the operator of multiple federally funded research and development centers, we serve as the trusted adviser to our government sponsors," he says. "And we have the unique ability to coordinate across sponsors, such as the FAA and the Department of Defense."

Meteorology+: The Need for Diversity at MITRE

For those considering bringing their own meteorology expertise to MITRE, Fronzak offers one key piece of advice: Diversify.

"You can't just be a meteorologist at MITRE," he says. "You have to be a meteorologist and something else." That other thing could be a private pilot, a computer programmer, a statistician, or an expert in AI or human factors, he suggests. "Because all those areas of expertise combine in one way or another with the science of meteorology to produce the outputs that decision-makers can effectively use."

For himself, Fronzak regrets not taking more courses in statistics while earning his undergraduate degree. The reason? The advent of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) and its application to virtually anything.

"I see AI/ML as anchored in the science of statistics, so I wish I had a stronger background in it," he says. "So far, I’ve just dabbled in AI, but like everyone I can see its potential. I know the next generation of meteorologists will do amazing things with it. I can’t wait to see how that unfolds."