Dr. Greg Zacharias was the Chief Scientist for the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, Office of the Secretary of Defense, serving from July 2018 to 2021. Previously, he was the Chief Scientist of the United States Air Force from May 2015 to January 2018. [1] In 2022 he transitioned from the Department of Defense to work with AI-simulation company Pasteur Labs as Director of Government Solutions. [2]
In 1967, Zacharias graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 1974, he earned a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Instrumentation, Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977.
From 1983 to 2015, Dr. Zacharias served as first Vice President and then President of Charles River Analytics, a research and development company that he co-founded and that applies computational intelligence technologies to develop mission-relevant tools and solutions to transform customers' data into knowledge that drives accurate assessment and robust decision-making. [3]
Dr. Zacharias served on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board for eight years, contributing to nine summer studies, most recently chairing a study on “Operating Next-Generation Remotely Piloted Aircraft for Irregular Warfare.”. [4] He also chaired the Human System Wing Advisory Group, was a member of Air Combat Command’s Advisory Group, and served as a technical program reviewer for the Air Force Research Laboratory (in Human Effectiveness and Information Systems). He was a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Human Factors (now the Committee on Human-Systems Integration) for over ten years, supporting a number of NRC studies including one for Defense Modeling and Simulation Office evaluating the state-of-the-art in military human behavior models, and co-chairing a follow-up study entitled “Organizational Models: from Individuals to Societies,” [5] which presents a roadmap for future DoD science and technology investments in this area. He has served on the DoD Human Systems Technology Area Review and Assessment (TARA) Panel.
Frederick Hamilton "Rick" Hauck is a retired captain in the United States Navy, a former fighter pilot and NASA astronaut. He piloted Space Shuttle mission STS-7 and commanded STS-51-A and STS-26.
Thomas B. Sheridan is American professor of mechanical engineering and Applied Psychology Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a pioneer of robotics and remote control technology.
The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is an American non-profit corporation that administers three federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) – the Systems and Analyses Center (SAC), the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI), and the Center for Communications and Computing (C&C) – to assist the United States government in addressing national security issues, particularly those requiring scientific and technical expertise. It is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.
General Lester L. Lyles is a retired four-star general in the United States Air Force (USAF). He served as Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, and Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. After retirement from the USAF in 2003, he became a company director for General Dynamics, DPL Inc., KBR, Inc., Precision Castparts Corp., MTC Technologies, Battelle Memorial Institute and USAA. Lyles is also a trustee of Analytic Services and a managing partner of Four Seasons Ventures, LLC.
Robert Channing Seamans Jr. was an MIT professor who served as NASA Deputy Administrator and 9th United States Secretary of the Air Force.
Siva Subrahmanyam Banda is an Indian-American aerospace engineer. He is Director of the Control Science Center of Excellence and Chief Scientist for the Aerospace Systems Directorate at the United States Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He has taught at Wright State University, the University of Dayton, and the Air Force Institute of Technology.
Ray O. Johnson is an American business executive. He is currently the chief executive officer of Technology Innovation Institute based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Before this, he served as the Lockheed Martin Corporation's chief technology officer and corporate senior vice president for engineering, technology, and operations.
Roger Redmond Bate was a brigadier general, Rhodes Scholar, professor, and scientist who had held a variety of positions with the Air Force, Texas Instruments, and the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
Charbel Farhat is the Vivian Church Hoff Professor of Aircraft Structures in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where from 2008 to 2023, he chaired the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. From 2022 to 2023, he chaired this department as the inaugural James and Anna Marie Spilker Chair of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also Professor in the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, and Director of the Stanford-King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology Center of Excellence for Aeronautics and Astronautics. From 2017 to 2023, he served on the Space Technology Industry-Government-University Roundtable; from 2015 to 2019, he served on the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB); from 2008 to 2018, he served on the United States Bureau of Industry and Security's Emerging Technology and Research Advisory Committee (ETRAC) at the United States Department of Commerce; and from 2007 to 2018, he served as the Director of the Army High Performance Computing Research Center at Stanford University. He was designated by the US Navy recruiters as a Primary Key-Influencer and flew with the Blue Angels during Fleet Week 2014.
Alexander Henry Flax was the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force (USAF) from 1959 to 1961, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research and Development from 1963 to 1969, and the third Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from 1965 to 1969. He was the director at a time when the second generation of imaging systems became operational and began to play a major role in United States intelligence during the Cold War. He oversaw major growth in NRO funding and personnel, the development of signals intelligence collectors from space, and the development of electro-optical imaging for US reconnaissance satellites.
Hyman Norman Abramson was an American engineer and scientist. He was the Executive Vice President of the Southwest Research Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, and the manager and principal investigator in several NAE and NRC research projects.
Dr. Mark J. Lewis is a senior American aerospace and defense executive with special expertise in hypersonics. He is currently the Executive Director of the National Defense Industrial Association's Emerging Technologies Institute, following his role in the second half of 2020 as the acting US Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and before that the Director of Defense Research and Engineering for Modernization. He was the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. from 2004 to 2008 and was the longest-serving Chief Scientist in Air Force history. He served as chief scientific adviser to the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Air Force, and provided assessments on a wide range of scientific and technical issues affecting the Air Force mission. In this role he identified and analyzed technical issues and brought them to attention of Air Force leaders, and interacted with other Air Staff principals, operational commanders, combatant commands, acquisition, and science & technology communities to address cross-organizational technical issues and solutions. His primary areas of focus included energy, sustainment, long-range strike technologies, advanced propulsion systems, and workforce development.
Michael Ihor Yarymovych is President of Sarasota Space Associates, an aerospace consultant providing services to the aerospace industry and government. He is Senior Fellow of the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and has served on numerous SAB and Defense Science Board studies. He retired from the Boeing Company in 1998 as Vice President of International Technology in the Information, Space and Defense Systems organization. Prior to the merger of Rockwell International with Boeing he was Vice President and Associate Center Director of the Systems Development Center, which focused the corporation’s resources on new high technology advanced concepts requiring the skills of many divisions. He had joined Rockwell in 1977 as Vice President Engineering of the Aerospace Operations in leadership positions of programs such as the Space Shuttle, Global Positioning System and the B1B strategic aircraft.
Paul Garrett Kaminski is a technologist and former U.S. government official, best known for his leading role in the development of stealth aircraft.
Elaine Surick Oran is an American physical scientist and is considered a world authority on numerical methods for large-scale simulation of physical systems. She has pioneered computational technology to solve complex reactive flow problems, unifying concepts from science, mathematics, engineering, and computer science in a new methodology. An incredibly diverse range of phenomena can be modeled and better understood using her techniques for numerical simulation of fluid flows, ranging from the tightly grouped movements of fish in Earth's oceans to the explosions of far-flung supernovae in space. Her work has contributed significantly to the advancement of the engineering profession.
Larry E. Druffel is an American engineer, Director Emeritus and visiting scientist at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University. He has published over 40 professional papers/reports and authored a textbook. He is best known for leadership in: (1) bringing engineering discipline and supporting technology to software design and development, and (2) addressing network and software security risks.
Daniel E. Hastings is an American physicist, currently the Cecil and Ida Green Education Professor and the former director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hastings became head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics on January 1, 2019. He has served as the chief scientist of the US Air Force and on many national level boards.
David W. Miller is an American aerospace engineer who is the current Jerome Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 2015. He is currently on a leave of absence from MIT to be a VP and the Chief Technology Officer to The Aerospace Corporation. He has worked on multiple NASA projects and served as NASA Chief Technologist.
Liang Shoupan was a Chinese aerospace engineer. The chief designer of China's first generation of anti-ship missiles including the HY-1 and HY-2, he is regarded as the "father of China's cruise missile program". He also designed the C-101, C-801 and other missiles. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Astronautics. In 2006, he was one of the five scientists who received the Highest Achievement Award of China's aerospace industry.
Khanh Dai Pham is a Vietnamese-born American aerospace engineer. He is noted for his work in statistical optimal control theory, game-theoretic operations research of military satellite communications, space control autonomy, and space domain awareness and the government leadership in innovation ecosystem and coalition of government agencies, small business and industry. He is a Fellow of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), and the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). He is not only a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Astronautical Society (AAS), and the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) but also an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN).