People Category: AIAA SciTech Forum 2020

Michael "Pappy" Penland

Mr. Mike “Pappy” Penland is the Principal Director, Operational Energy Policy and Chief of Staff, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, Operational Energy, Washington, D.C. where he leads the development of the Air Force Operational Energy strategy, Operational Energy policy, and guidance for integration and implementation across the Air Force.

Mr. Penland began his career in 1981 as an enlisted air traffic controller, 1928th Communications Group, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. He was commissioned in 1987 and selected for undergraduate pilot training at Vance AFB, OK. During more than 25 years of active military service, Mr. Penland served as an air traffic controller, airfield manager, B-52G/H pilot, T-37 instructor pilot, and B-1 instructor and operational test pilot. He has served in a broad range of Air Force staff, leadership, and command positions including standardization and evaluation pilot, flight commander, assistant operations officer,
operations officer, and squadron commander.

Following his military retirement, Mr. Penland continued his service to the Department of the Air Force as the point-man for Air Armament Center, Eglin AFB, managing operational issues for the BRAC 2005 bed down of the Joint Strike Fighter and 7th Special Forces Group on the Eglin complex. Mr. Penland was hand-picked to be the government lead for the Gulf Regional Airspace Strategic Initiative. A collaborative effort that brought together all the military services and communities at the local and state level to successfully develop strategies to integrate all military missions with civilian aviation and other requirements
efficiently into Northwest Florida. In 2010, Mr. Penland was assigned as the Chief, Operational Basing and Operational Encroachment, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans and Requirements, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. He was responsible for operational encroachment, mission sustainment, aviation energy, and strategic basing within the Operations, Plans, and Requirements Directorate. He was a member of the Basing Requirements Review Panel, subject matter expert and an advisor to the Strategic Basing Executive Steering Group, and the Air Force operational representative to the DoD Siting Clearinghouse.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Penland was the Chief of Combat Air Force Aviation Energy Current Operations, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, Operational Energy, Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

Emilie "Mia" Siochi

Mia Siochi is a senior materials scientist in the Advanced Materials and Processing Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.  Her research interest is largely around high performance aerospace materials, especially emerging technologies such as structural nanomaterial systems, bioinspired materials, engineered materials and surfaces, energy harvesting, additive manufacturing and extreme environment materials.  Over the last couple of decades, she has advocated for multidisciplinary research that couple computational modeling with experimentation to accelerate the insertion of emerging technologies into the materials ecosystem.  Mia holds a BS in Chemistry from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, a MS in Chemistry and a PhD in Materials Engineering Science both from Virginia Tech.

Paula Bontempi

Dr. Paula Bontempi has been a biological oceanographer for 25 years. She began her career as a research intern at the New England Aquarium as an undergraduate at Boston College, later entering the fields of phytoplankton taxonomy and physiology in the Department of Oceanography at Texas A&M University. Research on phytoplankton taxa and coupled physical and biological drivers of global and regional phytoplankton spatial patterns led to interests in marine bio-optics and ocean color remote sensing. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography in 2001 with a Ph.D., spending time during her studies as a research fellow at the SACLANT Lab in La Spezia, Italy, in Friday Harbor, Washington, and as a summer intern at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She moved from the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Department of Marine Science to NASA Headquarters in 2003. Dr. Bontempi spent over 16 years as the program manager for Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry at NASA Headquarters, as well as the Lead for NASA’s Carbon Cycle and Ecosystems Focus Area and the agency’s Carbon Cycle Science research lead, before becoming the Earth Science Division’s Acting Deputy Director in 2019. She is Program Scientist for MODIS-Terra and Aqua, Suomi NPP, PACE, NAAMES (EV-S), HICO, CORAL (EV-S), and the former SeaWiFS mission. She has been honored to be invited to teach the Earth Science module of NASA’s astronaut training class over the last several years.

Joe Wilding

Joe came to Boom with significant experience in the aerospace industry. He played engineering and leadership roles on aircraft and certification programs at Hawker Beechcraft, Adam Aircraft Industries, Eclipse Aviation, and ICON Aircraft, and he has been an early employee at three aerospace startups. At Adam, he was Chief Engineer of the Adam A700 light jet. In addition to his work on several experimental and military projects, Joe has led development of several passenger aircraft from clean sheet through FAA certification.

Lorry Wagner

A leadership professional who has a wide range of experience in: Offshore Wind Development, First of A Kind Solutions, Coaching for Performance, Environmental & Regulatory Engagement, and Avoiding Failures.  Exceptional outcomes have been achieved for organizations such as the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, Ford Motor Company, NASA, and Global Asset Management. Each success resulted from embracing organizational goals, building the team, asking the right questions, gathering the facts, and coaching the team to success.  Some of these include: securing $65 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for one of two Advanced Technology Offshore Wind Demonstration Projects; attracting $10 million private investment for the first freshwater offshore wind project in North America; and developing a highly profitable Deep Learning Neural Network for trading 30 Year U.S. Treasury Bonds.

He received his Bachelors of Interdisciplinary Engineering, Masters in Nuclear Engineering and his Ph.D. from Purdue University, where he developed several new heat transfer models for Fusion Reactors.  This research included experimental research, theoretical modeling, and empirical simulations to explain and predict liquid metal heat transfer under the influence of a magnetic field.  Over the course of his business career he has led numerous companies including start-ups as well as established businesses. His current role is as Principal of Holt Murphy Advisors, Ltd, a consulting group focused on failure prevention for industrial and offshore wind projects.  Off the clock, he was Team Engineer for KR Powerboat Racing, winner of the 1992 Offshore Profession Tour, as well as Head Coach for two Division I University swimming teams.  He is a lifelong boater and member of Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE), who have discovered more than 30 wrecks in Lake Erie.

Wayne Ottinger

C. Wayne Ottinger Has more than sixty years of aerospace engineering and management experience including positions with federal and state agencies, industry, consulting, and small business. His aerospace and advanced technology experience includes jet and rocket propulsion, flight-testing, engine control systems, ejection systems, energy conservation and renewable energy sources. He was the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle Technical Director and Base Manager (Ellington Field LLTV Flight Test) for Bell Aerosystems Co. For the NASA Flight Research Center (now the Armstrong Flight Research Center), he was Project Engineer (Flight Operations) for the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle and Propulsion Engineer for the X-15 Rocket Aircraft. In June 2008 he founded, Aerospace Legacy Engineering & Technology Recovery Organization (ALETRO) a nonprofit corporation and serves as President. In 2008 & 2009 he served as a NASA SAGES (Shuttle and Apollo Generation Expert Services) consultant on the NASA Study for Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) options for the Constellation program. Post Apollo, he worked in a number of advanced technology fields:

  • Air Cushion Vehicles & Surface Effect Ships, Engineering Consultant & Film Producer
  • California Energy Commission, Conservation & Renewables
  • Uranium Enrichment, Gas Centrifuges, Advanced Imaging Technologies for failure analysis
  • Owner/Builder Passive Solar Home, Featured in Sunset Magazine

Anthony J. Calise

While at Georgia Tech, Dr. Calise built a program in Flight Mechanics and Control (FMC).  During his tenure the FMC disciplinary area grew to 5 faculty members, and was considered one of the best in the country.  He also started the UAV lab.  His research program was funded by NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office and a variety of Air Force laboratories and corporate sponsors.  Throughout his academic career Dr. Calise served as a consultant to industry in the areas of helicopter, aircraft, launch vehicles, satellites and guided parafoil flight control.  He is a Fellow of AIAA, and nationally and inter-nationally recognized as an expert in the areas of guidance and flight control, and control of flexible systems.

James G. Anderson

Jim Anderson is the Philip S. Weld Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Earth and Planetary Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University. He was Chairman, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, 1998–2001. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992, the American Philosophical Society in 1998, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1985, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986, a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1989.

He received the 2019 Aluminus Summa Laude Dignatus from the University of Washington, the 2017 Lichtenberg Medal from the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the 2016 Polanyi Medal of the British Royal Academy of Chemistry for work on free radical kinetics, the 2016 Benton Medal for Public Service by the University of Chicago, and the 2012 Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in the Physical Sciences. He received the E.O. Lawrence Award in Environmental Science and Technology; the American Chemical Society’s Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest; the United Nations Vienna Convention Award for Protection of the Ozone Layer; Harvard University’s Ledlie Prize for Most Valuable Contribution to Science by a Member of the Faculty; the American Chemical Society’s National Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology. He has testified on numerous occasions before both Senate and House committees on national energy and climate issues.

The Anderson research group addresses four domains at the intersection of the physical sciences with global climate change: (1) chemical catalysis sustained by free radical chain reactions that dictate the macroscopic rate of chemical transformation in Earth’s stratosphere and troposphere; (2) mechanistic links between chemistry, radiation, and dynamics in the atmosphere that control climate; (3) the design and development of new climate observing systems including solar powered stratospheric aircraft and the StratoCruiser Flight System; and (4) chemical reactivity viewed from the microscopic perspective of electron structure, molecular orbitals and reactivities of radical-radical and radical-molecule systems.