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Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
Edsel D. Dunford (NAE), Chair, is the past president and chief operating officer of TRW, Inc. Over a 35-year career with Boeing Airplane Company, Ford Aerospace, and TRW, Inc., he focused on spaceborne electronics and the management of technology programs. Mr. Dunford holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Washington and an M.S. in engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. Mr. Dunford was recently the coexecutive producer of a 2-hour historical documentary, “The Cold War and Beyond,” which aired in fall 2003 and was a finalist at the Hollywood Film Festival. His experience is in military acquisition and procurement, aerospace engineering, space science, strategic planning, and systems engineering.
Donald J. Kutyna (U.S. Air Force, retired), Vice-Chair, is currently the vice president of Space Technology at Loral Space and Communications. Prior to this position, he served as vice-president of Advanced Space Systems at the Loral and Lockheed Martin Corporations. General Kutyna retired from 35 years of service in the Air Force. In his final assignment he served simultaneously as commander in chief (CINC) of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, CINC of the United States Space Command, and commander of the Air Force Space Command. In these positions, he was responsible for the acquisition, operation, and maintenance of all DoD space systems and supporting space assets. He also chaired the Technical Investigation Panel of the Space Shuttle Challenger Presidential Commission. General Kutyna holds a B.S. degree from the United States Military Academy and an M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has experience in military operations, acquisition program management, aerospace engineering, space science, propulsion engineering, strategic planning, systems engineering, orbital mechanics, aerodynamics, military and commercial space satellites, space mission success, space operations and missile warning, and space launch and control.
Kevin G. Bowcutt is a Boeing Senior Technical Fellow and chief scientist of hypersonic design and applications for the Boeing Company. Most recently, Dr. Bowcutt led the design team that created the Flexible Aerospace System Solution for Transformation (FASST) two-stage-to-orbit, air-breathing, reusable launch vehicle concept that is now part of the NASA Next-Generation
Launch Technology program. He previously worked for the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program, led a project testing scramjet engines at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and led the conceptual design efforts for the DARPA/Boeing affordable rapid-response missile demonstrator (ARRMD) vehicle. Dr. Bowcutt holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. He has experience in aerospace engineering, physics, thermodynamics, propulsion engineering, systems engineering, strategic planning, aerodynamics, program management, propulsion integration, and integrated vehicle design and optimization.
Kenneth E. Eickmann (U.S. Air Force, retired) spent the last 5 years as director of the Construction Industry Institute (CII) at the University of Texas. Prior to joining the CII, he completed a 31-year career in the U.S. Air Force, in which his last assignment was commander of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he led the nation’s largest center of excellence for research, development, and acquisition of aircraft, aeronautical equipment, and munitions. Lieutenant General Eickmann holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas, Austin, and an M.S. in systems engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. He is also a senior lecturer in the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and a registered professional engineer. His expertise is in military acquisition and procurement, aerospace engineering, materials science and engineering, government technical program management, propulsion engineering, strategic planning, industrial engineering, and systems engineering.
Wesley L. Harris (NAE) is the Charles Stark Draper Professor and head of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on theoretical and experimental unsteady aerodynamics and aeroacoustics; computational fluid dynamics; and the impact of government policy on procurement of high-technology systems. Prior to this position he served as the associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA. He has also served as the vice president and chief administrative officer of the University of Tennessee Space Institute. Dr. Harris earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace and mechanical sciences from Princeton University. His experience is in military acquisition and procurement, aerospace engineering, government technical program management, thermodynamics, propulsion engineering, strategic planning, systems engineering, and aerodynamics.
Hans G. Hornung (NAE) is the Clarence L. Johnson Professor of Aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology. His research focuses on turbulence and flow in hypersonic environments. Formerly he was the director of the DFVLR Institute for Experimental Fluid Mechanics in Göttingen, Germany, and a professor of physics at the Australian National University, Canberra. He also held a position as a research scientist at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne. Dr. Hornung holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and a master’s in engineering science from the University of Melbourne and a Ph.D. in aeronautics from Imperial College at the University of London. He is experienced in aerospace engineering, physics, thermodynamics, and aerodynamics.
Kathleen C. Howell is a professor at the Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where she has taught for 21 years. She holds a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University, an M.S. in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in aeronautical and astronautical sciences from Stanford University. Her research efforts focus on mission planning, spacecraft navigation, and maneuver requirements for vehicles in inter-planetary space or in the neighborhood of Earth. Dr. Howell previously held positions with the
Proctor & Gamble Manufacturing Company and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and was a USAF/ASEE summer faculty fellow at the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, where she researched auxiliary propulsion systems for attitude control of large, flexible space structures. She has experience in aerospace engineering, orbital mechanics, mission design, and spacecraft trajectory and attitude control.
Eric J. Jumper is a professor in the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also a member of the Center for Flow Physics and Control and directs the Aero-Optics Lab in the University of Notre Dame’s Hessert Laboratory for Aerospace Research. His research includes work on aero-optics, turbomachines and turbofans, and aircraft wake dynamics. He has also taught at both the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio. In addition to his academic appointments, Dr. Jumper has worked as a research aerodynamicist and as chief of the Laser Devices Division at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory. He holds a B.S. from the University of New Mexico, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Wyoming, and a Ph.D. in gas dynamics and laser physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology. His expertise is in military acquisition and procurement, aerospace engineering, space science, government technical program management, physics, thermodynamics, propulsion and combustion, orbital mechanics, aerodynamics, reentry heating and thermal protection materials, surface chemistry, and aero-optics.
Ira F. Kuhn, Jr., is the founder, CEO, and president of Directed Technologies, Inc. (DTI), an R&D and science consulting firm specializing in projects relating to energy and national defense. DTI has completed projects involving the National Aerospace Plane, supersonic transports, and building a hydrogen infrastructure. Prior to founding DTI, Mr. Kuhn was a founder and vice president of Science and Analysis at B-K Dynamics, Inc., where he led a number of projects, including work with high-altitude unmanned surveillance platforms and long-range ramjets and antiaircraft missiles. He also worked as a senior scientist at Booz-Allen Applied Research and was a member of the National Security Advisory Panel for the Director of Central Intelligence and is now a member of the Army Science Board. Mr. Kuhn holds a B.S. in physics and an M.S. in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University. He has experience with military operations, acquisition and procurement, aerospace engineering, physics, systems engineering, and aerodynamics.
Andrew J. Meade is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Rice University. His research focuses on machine learning and its application to experimental and computational mechanics. During 18 years of collaboration with NASA and the DoD, he has worked on projects involving aerodynamics, three-dimensional boundary layer separation, mesh-free finite element analysis, dynamic systems, multidisciplinary optimization, parallel and distributed computing, and heat transfer. Dr. Meade holds a B.S. from Rice University, an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in mechanical engineering, and is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics associate fellow. As the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and National Society of Black Engineers faculty advisor and the department’s undergraduate advisor, he was active in the recruitment and mentoring of engineering students. He has experience in aerodynamics, multidisciplinary optimization, numerical and experimental methods, and aerospace workforce issues.
Carl J. Meade (U.S. Air Force, retired) is currently a portfolio manager in the Advanced Development Programs (Skunk Works) organization at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, where he previously held the position of X-33 program director. While in military service, Colonel Meade
was the deputy division chief of the Crew and Thermal Systems Division as well as an Astronaut Office branch chief at NASA Johnson Space Center. Colonel Meade is a former F-16 aircraft commander, Air Force experimental test pilot, and NASA astronaut. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Texas, Austin, and an M.S. in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He is also a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas. He has experience in military operations, acquisition and procurement, aerospace engineering, space science, materials science and engineering, government technical program management, strategic planning, systems engineering, orbital mechanics, system verification, software verification, and flight-test planning and operations.
Neil E. Paton (NAE) is the chief technology officer and chairman of the Technology Advisory Board for Liquidmetal Technologies, where he has worked since March 2002. Prior to joining Liquidmetal, he served for 12 years as vice president of technology for the Howmet Corporation and as the president of Howmet Research Corporation, which developed products, processes, and materials for gas turbines. He also worked in materials development and advanced engineering for 20 years at Rockwell International, where he was involved in numerous programs, including the space shuttle program and the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) program. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and a Ph.D. in materials science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His experience is in aerospace engineering, space science, materials science and engineering, government technical program management, propulsion engineering, and manufacturing operations.
Ronald F. Paulson is the corporate vice president of engineering at the Lockheed Martin Corporation. He has also served as vice president of remote sensing and space science at Missiles and Space, where he was responsible for 18 civil, national, and commercial space vehicle programs, and as vice president of technical operations with the Space Systems Company, where he was responsible for program performance, engineering, technology, and operations. Dr. Paulson holds B.S., M.S.M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota and an M.S. in management/business from Stanford University. His experience is in aerospace engineering, space science, materials science and engineering, government technical program management, physics, thermodynamics, strategic planning, systems engineering, aerodynamics, and satellite development and manufacturing.
Fred E. Saalfeld retired in 2002 as the executive director and technical director of the Office of Naval Research (ONR). This was the last in a series of positions over a 40-year career at ONR and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), where he spent time as superintendent of the Chemistry Division, director of the ONR Research Department, and Deputy Chief of Naval Research. Dr. Saalfeld received a B.S. degree in chemistry, physics, and mathematics from Southeast Missouri State University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physical chemistry from Iowa State University. He has experience in materials science and engineering, government technical program management, strategic planning, and military research planning and policy.
Donna L. Shirley is director of the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. She is also president of Managing Creativity, a consulting and training firm. She recently retired as assistant dean of engineering for Advanced Program Development and as an instructor in aerospace mechanical engineering at the University of Oklahoma. These positions followed a 33-year career with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where she served in a number of capacities, including managing the NASA Mars Exploration Program and overseeing the Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor missions and the Sojourner Rover program. Professor Shirley holds a B.A. in journalism
and a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Oklahoma and an M.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California. She has experience in aerospace engineering, space science, government technical program management, and systems engineering.
Peter Staudhammer (NAE) is an independent consultant and the retired vice president of science and technology at TRW, Inc. He served as the chief technology officer at TRW for 10 years, where he was responsible for the overall health and direction of the company’s technical affairs, establishing technical leadership in space, electronics, and information systems and standardizing TRW’s global product development and introduction processes. He also held positions as the chief engineer of the Apollo lunar descent engine and the Viking biology instrument programs and as director of the Physical Research Laboratory. He has been the chair of the NAE Program Committee since his induction into the Academy in 1996. Dr. Staudhammer holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. His expertise is in aerospace engineering, space science, thermodynamics, propulsion engineering, systems engineering, orbital mechanics, and engineering management.