Mark Lewis will give a lecture as part of the Purdue Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series on "Emerging Technologies and the Future of National Defense."

Lecture abstract: Since the earliest days of our nation, staying at the forefront of technological progress has been essential to America’s national security. In this second decade of the 21st century, the U.S. military finds itself at a critical juncture, where defense-relevant technology development is being driven more and more by the commercial sector; at the same time, other nations—including peer competitors—are investing in cutting-edge technologies at unprecedented levels, often building on American invention but deploying at a remarkable pace. This talk will address the current state of defense-related technology development and deployment, with an eye towards several key areas including microelectronics, artificial intelligence, space, directed energy, and hypersonics. The example of hypersonics as a technology area in which the United States was the clear inventor, but is now playing catch-up, will be highlighted, with an overview of recent progress and recommended paths forward.

Bio: Dr. Mark J. Lewis is the Executive Director of NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute (NDIA ETI), a non-partisan think tank focused on technologies that are critical to the future of national defense. ETI provides research and analyses to inform the development and integration of emerging technologies into the defense industrial base.

Prior to this position, Dr. Lewis was the Director of Defense Research & Engineering in the Department of Defense (DoD), overseeing technology modernization for all Services and DoD Agencies, as well as the acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering. In that role, he was the Pentagon’s senior-most scientist, managing a $17B budget that included DARPA, the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Innovation Unit, the Space Development Agency, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC), and the Department’s basic and applied research portfolio.

WebEx link to register.