People Category: Panelist

James W. Weber

Dr. James W. Weber is the Principal Director for Hypersonics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Critical Technologies, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E).  In this position, he serves as the Department of Defense’s senior official and subject matter expert for Hypersonics.  Dr. Weber leads DOD’s vision, strategy, and roadmap for hypersonic weapons and platforms, and the defense against hypersonic threats.  Additionally, he oversees the strategic alignment and coordination of the Department’s more than $4 billion annual portfolio in hypersonics including science and technology, prototyping, test and evaluation, and industrial base development.

Dr. Weber has more than 30 years of experience in the research and development of hypersonic systems.  He has held multiple previous assignments in the United States Air Force including engineering and program management positions with the DOD/NASA National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), AFRL Hypersonic Technology (HyTech), DARPA/AFRL Affordable Rapid Response Missile Demonstrator (ARRMD), and AFRL High Speed Strike Weapon (HSSW) programs.  In 2019, Dr. Weber was detailed to OUSD(R&E) as a Special Assistant for Hypersonics, where he led the development and execution of the first DOD Hypersonics Science & Technology Strategy.

Prior to assuming his current position, Dr. Weber served as the Air Force Senior Scientist for Hypersonics, where he was responsible for the department’s hypersonics science and technology enterprise and advised Air Force senior leadership on hypersonic systems development.

Dr. Weber received his B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park.  He is an Excellence in Government Fellow, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a three-time recipient of the Air Force Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

Brett Boylston

Brett Boylston is the Foreign Technology manager at Beyond New Horizons, the Test Operations and Sustainment contractor at Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Arnold AFB. He is responsible for managing a small, highly experienced team of engineers that provide analytic outreach to the DoD community on aerospace ground test facilities and defense production infrastructure. Brett began his career as a test facility analyst and built real-time math models of AEDC’s test facilities. He has applied those skills to ground test facilities and is a subject matter expert on wind tunnels, hypersonic propulsion test cells, and turbine engine test facilities. Brett has a BS in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a MS from the University of Tennessee.”

Lt. Col. Charles LeDeatte, USAF

Lieutenant Colonel Charles “Chaz” LeDeatte is the Director of the AFCENT Battle Lab and Chief Technology Officer, Headquarters Ninth Air Force (Air Forces Central), Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina. In these roles, he serves as the principal lead and advisor to the Commander for operational science and technology, research and development, technology integration, innovation, and digital transformation across the command, partnering with academia, industry, and government labs to achieve these efforts. Colonel LeDeatte drives strategic efforts to expedite technology adoption, achieve decision superiority for warfighters, and convert science and technology investments into disruptive capabilities. His leadership directly supports 12K personnel conducting air operations across the 21-nation United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility, fostering regional security and cooperation. Colonel LeDeatte received his commission from the East Carolina University AFROTC program in 2004. He is a Senior Air Battle Manager (ABM) with more than 2,000 flight hours, including 1,280 combat flight hours. Colonel LeDeatte has commanded combat missions supporting multinational security efforts and stability operations, including Operations INHERENT RESOLVE, FREEDOM’S SENTINAL, NATO RESOLUTE SUPPORT, and POTUS-directed missions.

Thomas Powers

Dr. Thomas Powers is an Aerospace Engineer and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Threat Systems expert with over 10 years of experience with consumer small UAS (sUAS) and over 5 years of experience with adversary UAS and Cruise Missile systems. With a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University focused on implementing autonomous soaring algorithms and involvement in the hobbyist remote piloting community, Powers’ passion for sUAS has fueled a focus on innovation in the threat space. After making the transition from grad school research to threats analysis as a UAS Threat SME at APL, Powers leads a team of UAV pilots focused on supporting numerous counter-UAS efforts across APL and various sponsors by emulating red-team sUAS capabilities and tactics, and executing demonstrations highlighting gaps in current defensive postures. Powers has also become a recognized subject matter expert in UAS threat technologies and threat concepts of operations, and has briefed various audiences on the current UAS threat environment, provided motivation, and fostered understanding on these rapidly expanding and developing threats. Powers is passionate about understanding the interplay between the state of the art in sUAS technology and UAS threat systems to better anticipate the threats of the future.

Patrick "Pat" Schirmer

Pat Schirmer is vice president of Engineering Strategy & Operations for Boeing, a position he has held since December 2019. In this role, he has responsibility for major activities that integrate the company’s Engineering team, such as design practices and processes, deployment of model-based engineering, and talent management and strategic workforce planning.

Schirmer has held a variety of leadership roles during his 35-year Boeing career. Most recently, he was vice president of Engineering for Boeing Commercial Airplanes’ Fabrication and Airplane Programs organizations, where he oversaw the engineering teams supporting Fabrication, the 737, 747, 767, 777 and 787, including non-recurring product development efforts (737 MAX and 777X). In that role, he provided strategic direction to the Engineering function for use of common processes and tools and drove integration across programs, people and business units.

Prior to that, he served as vice president of Commercial Airplanes Customer Support, responsible for ensuring the health of the world’s largest fleet of commercial jetliners – more than 14,000 airplanes. He oversaw a complete set of technical resources that helped more than 800 operators maintain their fleets. Resources include service, maintenance and retrofit engineering assistance; round the clock technical support; field service; and maintenance publications.

Schirmer also led Customer Support Engineering, where he oversaw an operations center that provides 24/7 support to airplane customers around the globe, served as 737-900ER deputy program manager, and was fleet chief for the Next-Generation 737.

Schirmer first joined Boeing in the Missile System Division of the defense business, working on the Peacekeeper missile, Hard Mobile Launcher and Short Range Attack Missile as a dynamics and loads engineer.

A graduate of the University of Washington, Schirmer received a Master of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as a Master of Business Administration participating in the Executive MBA program. In addition, Schirmer is a graduate from the Seattle University Executive Leadership Program.

Reynaldo "Ray" Gomez III

Reynaldo Gomez started work at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in May of 1985 after completing a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University. He has worked on a wide range of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications over the last 34 years, ranging from simulations of wind loads on the Shuttle prior to launch through hypersonic reentry flowfields. In addition to reviewing all integrated aerodynamics products for the Space Shuttle Program, he lead the development of wind tunnel tests, CFD simulations, and inflight Shuttle debris transport assessments through the end of the program. He currently works in the JSC Engineering Directorate and serves as the Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Aerodynamics Technical Authority, is the co-lead for Space Launch System aerodynamics and is the space applications representative on NASA’s Aerosciences Testing Advisory Board.

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.

Parimal "PK" Kopardekar

Parimal Kopardekar (PK) serves as the Director of NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI).  In that capacity, he is responsible for exploring new trends and needs related to aviation in the areas of autonomy, aeronautics manufacturing, and advanced air mobility.  He also serves as NASA’s senior technologist for Air Transportation Systems and principal investigator for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) project. He was formerly manager of the NASA’s Safe Autonomous System Operations Project, which developed autonomy related concepts, technologies and architectures that will increase efficiency, safety, and capacity of airspace operations.

Prior to that, he managed Next Generation Air Transportation Systems (NextGen) Concepts and Technology Development Project. He enjoys initiating new concepts and technology ideas that increase airspace capacity and throughput, reduce delays, and reduce the total cost of air transportation. At NASA, he has initiated many innovative research projects including reduced crew operations, net-enabled air traffic management, autonomy for airspace operations, Shadow-Mode Assessment using Realistic Technologies for the National Airspace System (SMART NAS), and low-altitude airspace management system focused on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations.

He is the winner of the 2020 NASA Government Invention of the Year and the 2018 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (known as the Oscars for the federal workforce) in the “Promising Innovations” category. In 2017, he was named among the 25 most influential people in commercial drone industry. He has published over 50 conference and journal papers with three best paper awards, delivered more than 20 keynote talks at national and international conferences, and participates as an expert with media on topics related to unmanned aircraft systems, urban air mobility, autonomy, and supply chain management. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and recipient of numerous NASA awards including Outstanding Leadership Medal and Engineer of the Year. He holds a doctorate and master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering and bachelor’s degree in production engineering.  He serves as the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Aerospace Operations. He also serves as an adjunct faculty and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses related to operations management and supply chain management.

Official Bio