Appendix D
Biographical Sketches of Workshop Presenters
WILLIAM F. BANHOLZER (NAE) is the Executive Vice President at Ventures, New Business Development and Licensing, and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the Dow Chemical Company. He is a member of Dow’s Executive Leadership Committee, which is responsible for corporate strategy and financial performance, and is also a member of the Strategy Board, responsible for the review and approval of the Company’s strategy and resource allocation decisions. As CTO, Dr. Banholzer has responsibility for driving innovation, for value creation, and for leading Dow’s global research and development activities, directing an annual budget of $1.7 billion. Dr. Banholzer co-leads Dow’s Innovation and Growth Team, which oversees all of Dow’s Innovation programs, including new growth platforms. In addition, he serves on Dow’s Venture Capital Board, the Dow Kokam Board, Dow AgroScience’s Members Committee, and the Dow Foundation. He is a member of the board of directors for the Dow Corning Corporation, serving on the Corporate Responsibility Committee. Prior to arriving at Dow, Dr. Banholzer had a 22-year career with General Electric Company (GE); as Vice President of Global Technology at GE Advanced Materials, he was responsible for worldwide technology and engineering. During his GE career, Dr. Banholzer was honored with GE’s Bronze, Silver, and Gold Patent Awards; GE Superabrasives’ Leadership Award; GE Plastics’ CEO Six Sigma Award; and election to the Whitney Gallery of Technical Achievers. In 2002, he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Banholzer serves on advisory boards for chemistry and chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and for the chemical engineering department at the University of Wisconsin, and he serves on the National Research Council’s Board on Energy and Environmental Systems. He is a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He holds 16 U.S. patents and has more than 80 publications. Dr. Banholzer earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Marquette University and master’s and doctorate degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois.
GILBERT F. DECKER is a private consultant for several clients, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, and several corporations. Recently (May 2010 to February 2011), Mr. Decker co-chaired a commision appointed by the Secretary of the Army to conduct an in-depth review of the Army acquisition process, from requirements definition to production, and to provide findings and recommendations for improvements in quality and efficiency. Previously, Mr. Decker served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army and as a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. Before becoming a private consultant, he held several distinguished positions, including the following: President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Penn Central Federal Systems Company; Vice President and General Manager of the Defense Systems Group of TRW, Inc.; President and CEO of Acurex Corporation; President and CEO of ESL, Inc.; and Assistant Secretary of the
Army for Research, Development, and Acquisition, a position in which he served from 1993 through 1997. After his service as Assistant Secretary, he served as Executive Vice President for Engineering, Manufacturing, and Program Management of Walt Disney Imagineering. Honors presented to Mr. Decker include the Distinguished Public Service Medal from the Department of Defense, the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal from the Department of the Army, the Meritorious Service Medal from the U.S. Army, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Decker currently serves on the National Advisory Council for the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering. He also serves on the advisory board of the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute. He previously served on the National Research Council’s Board on Army Science and Technology (BAST). He is the Vice President and a director of the Hertz Foundation. He was formerly a director of Alliant TechSystems for 10 years, a director of Anteon Corporation for 10 years, and a director of the Allied Defense Group for 10 years. He served as a trustee for the Association of the U.S. Army and is a sustaining member. Mr. Decker holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the John Hopkins University and an M.S. in operations research from Stanford University. He undertook his military education as a U.S. Army Reserve Officer at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College as well as at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
ROY LEVIN is a Distinguished Engineer and Managing Director of Microsoft Research, Silicon Valley, which he co-founded in August 2001. The laboratory at present numbers approximately 75 researchers working in the area of distributed computing and related disciplines and operates in a highly collaborative style that embraces the technical spectrum from theory to practice. From 1996 until he joined Microsoft, Dr. Levin was the Director of the Digital/Compaq Systems Research Center in Palo Alto, California. Previously he had been a senior researcher in the Center since its founding in 1984. During those years he was a primary contributor and project leader for the Vesta software configuration management system and for the Topaz multiprocessor programming environment and its micro-kernel operating system. Before joining Digital, Dr. Levin was a researcher at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, where he was a principal developer and project co-leader of Cedar, an experimental programming environment for high-performance workstations. He was also a developer of Grapevine, a landmark electronic mail system. Dr. Levin received his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and his B.S. in mathematics from Yale University. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a former chair of its Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (SIGOPS), and a co-recipient of the ACM SIGOPS 2008 Hall of Fame Award. He is the author or a co-author of approximately 25 technical papers, books, and patents.
J. STEPHEN ROTTLER is Chief Technology Officer and Vice President for Science and Technology at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California. Dr. Rottler is the executive responsible for leadership and management of corporate research and development and capabilities stewardship at SNL. He is also responsible for leadership of technology transfer and strategic research relationships with universities, industry, and the State of New Mexico.
In his previous position as Chief Engineer for Nuclear Weapons and Vice President for Weapon Engineering and Product Realization, Dr. Rottler was the Central Technical Authority for nuclear weapons and led all nuclear weapons engineering and production activities at Sandia. Prior to serving in that position, Dr. Rottler served in a number of senior leadership positions at the Laboratories. He has been responsible for nuclear warhead system engineering and integration, development of high-performance electronic systems, and system analyses and assessments for SNL and National Nuclear Security Administration senior management. He also managed organizations and programs responsible for the research, development, and application of advanced computational and experimental techniques in the engineering sciences. As a member of the SNL technical staff, Dr. Rottler was part of a research team that developed multidimensional radiation-hydrodynamics simulation codes for nuclear weapons applications, and he led projects that supported the development of advanced nuclear and conventional weapons concepts. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a member of the Institute’s Board of Directors, and a past Chair of the AIAA’s Technical Committee on Management. He is a recipient of the Department of the Air Force Award for Exemplary Civilian Service. Dr. Rottler is a Fellow of Seminar XXI at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently serving or has served on the board of directors of the United Kingdom Atomic Weapons Establishment, New Mexico Humanities Council, Albuquerque Explora Science Museum, and Technology Ventures Corporation. He is a member of the external advisory board for the Texas A&M University Dwight Look College of Engineering. He has led or served on independent review panels for the U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs Office and the United Kingdom Atomic Weapons Establishment. Dr. Rottler received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University in 1980, 1982, and 1984, respectively. He has published papers, reports, and conference presentations on the development and application of computational radiation-hydrodynamics codes.
JOHN C. SOMMERER leads the Space Sector at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which provides the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with essential capabilities in combat and guided missile systems, air and missile defense, space science and exploration, strategic systems test and evaluation, submarine security, information technology and communications systems, modeling and simulation, and research and development. Since August 2008, Dr. Sommerer has been responsible for APL’s Civilian Space Area and National Security Space Business Area. APL is responsible for executing NASA’s MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) mission to Mercury, New Horizons mission to Pluto, STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) heliophysics mission, and TIMED (Thermospere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) Earth science mission (all under way); Radiation Belt Storm Probes mission to explore the Van Allen Belts (in spacecraft development); and Solar Probe Plus mission to explore the Sun’s outer atmosphere (in engineering and mission design). APL is Technical Direction Agent for the Precision Tracking Space System, a national security mission sponsored by the Missile Defense Agency. Prior to his current assignment, Dr. Sommerer was APL’s Director of Science and Technology
and Chief Technology Officer, managing the laboratory’s research and development program and S&T strategy; overseeing its Office of Technology Transfer and its support of the educational programs of the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering; and serving as primary technical liaison with the academic divisions of the university. He chaired APL’s Science and Technology Council, charged with ensuring that the laboratory always has the technical capabilities required to meet its mission. He has been with APL since 1980, holding technical and management positions in five of its departments and leading the development of an APL strategic plan for its core mission areas that identified three new initiatives now accounting for 30 percent of APL’s program activities and over 100 percent of APL’s program growth since 1999. He served as head of the Milton S. Eisenhower Research and Technology Center for 9 years; under his leadership, it more than tripled in size, and enabled APL to enter two new areas of service to the nation. Dr. Sommerer received B.S. (summa cum laude) and M.S. (with honors) degrees in systems science and mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis, an M.S. (with honors) in applied physics from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland. Prior to assuming executive responsibilities, he established an international reputation in nonlinear dynamics, making both theoretical and experimental contributions to the field. His personal research has been featured on the covers of both Science and Nature. He was a member of the editorial board of The Physical Review (1999-2005). In 2011, Dr. Sommerer was named as one of the inaugural Daniel Coit Gilman Scholars of the Johns Hopkins University, designating him as one of the foremost thought leaders within the University. He was also elected to the International Academy of Astronautics. He serves on multiple standing technical advisory bodies for the U.S. government, including the Naval Research Advisory Committee (he served a 2-year term as Vice Chair and a 2-year term as Chair), reporting to the Secretary of the Navy. He has also been a member of three National Research Council (NRC) standing boards and committees, as well as having participated in numerous ad hoc NRC studies; he was named a National Associate of the NRC in 2008. He has received a number of awards, including being named Maryland’s Distinguished Young Scientist in 1994. He was an adviser to the Howard County, Maryland, new business incubator, NeoTech, during its formation, and he served as a director of the Jim Rouse Entrepreneurial Fund.
JAMES H. TURNER is the Counsel and Director of Energy Programs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the former chief counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. Mr. Turner studied mathematics at Westminster College, social ethics at Yale Divinity School, and law at Georgetown University. He completed the Senior Managers in Government Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, is on the board of Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and was Academic Vice Chair for the President’s Advisory Committee for the Carnegie Mellon Heinz College. Recognizing the need to link technical expertise with federal policy, he set up a lecture series of senior Washington, D.C., officials for the Washington internship program for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Later, Dean Richard Miksad of the University of Virginia expanded the program to include the University of Virginia. Mr. Turner advises the program, helps interns find placements, and organizes a summer speaker series. He serves as a trustee of the University of Virginia School of
Engineering and Applied Science and as chair of the advisory board of its Department of Science, Technology and Society. In 2010, to honor his 10 years of service to the S&T Policy Internship program, the alumni of the the University of Virginia program named the annual end-of-summer research symposium after him.
