Sheryl Kopczynski

Sheryl Kopczynski serves as a key procurement professional at NASA Langley Research Center, where she manages complex research and development acquisitions aligned with the Center’s mission to advance aeronautics, space systems, and physical sciences. She oversees the full lifecycle of contracts supporting cutting-edge engineering research, including hypersonics, advanced materials, remote sensing, and spacecraft instrumentation. Her work directly enables NASA’s strategic goals in next-generation aerospace technologies by ensuring timely, compliant, and technically sound procurement of high-value scientific services and specialized R&D capabilities. Kopczynski maintains consistent partnerships with a select group of high-caliber contractors, including Jackson Bond Enterprises, LLC for technical engineering support, the University of Utah for applied research in aerospace systems, and Roche Diagnostics Corporation for specialized instrumentation development. These relationships reflect a pattern of sustained collaboration with institutions possessing deep domain expertise in physical and engineering sciences, often involving long-term, performance-based task orders under indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) vehicles. Her approach emphasizes technical rigor and mission alignment over transactional contracting. A strong advocate for small business participation, Kopczynski consistently prioritizes Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5, with approximately two-thirds of her acquisitions reserved for small businesses. This reflects a deliberate strategy to foster innovation through diverse vendor engagement, particularly among firms capable of delivering specialized R&D services in aerospace and physical sciences. Her contracting patterns demonstrate a sustained commitment to socioeconomic programs that expand the pool of qualified small business competitors in high-technology domains. Her procurement focus is exclusively centered on NAICS 541715—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences—encompassing experimental design, prototype development, data analysis, and systems integration for flight and space applications. She routinely sources advanced testing methodologies, sensor calibration services, and computational modeling solutions critical to NASA’s mission-critical research initiatives.