Transformative Materials

Dr. Jim Gimlett joined the Defense Sciences Office as a Program Manager in 2013. His current research interests include novel metrology for positioning, navigation and timing leveraging advances in quantum optics, nanoscale microelectromechanical systems, and atomic and nuclear physics, and new monitoring, modeling and modulation methodologies applied to immunology.

Dr. John Main has spent his career developing new technologies and businesses. He is currently a Program Manager in the Defense Sciences Office at DARPA where he is responsible for initiating new DARPA programs in the physical sciences and fostering the R&D communities that will support those programs. This is Dr. Main’s second tour as a DARPA Program Manager. His first tour at DARPA began in 2002 and resulted in programs in a broad range of technical areas including biologically inspired materials, fast and efficient human-powered swimming, rapid rooftop access, small-scale power generation, GPS-denied underwater navigation, and human exoskeletons for increased warfighter endurance.

Dr. Ken Plaks joined DARPA in January 2015 as a program manager. His research interests include stealth aircraft, electronic warfare, weapons research and cybersecurity.

Dr. Michael Fiddy joined DARPA as a program manager in the Defense Sciences Office in September 2016. His current interests include fundamental studies of wave-matter interactions from RF to visible light frequencies. Advancing scattering and inverse scattering methods for multiple scattering media leads to new imaging techniques and tools to synthesize 2-D and 3-D materials and structures, including those with sub-wavelength features.

Dr. D. Tyler McQuade joined DARPA as a program manager in the Defense Sciences Office in 2013. In his current DARPA role as a Program Manager he is overseeing programs in the physical sciences area. Current programs tend to be process oriented and range from surface coatings to small molecule synthesis.