Joseph Evans, Director for 5G at Department of Defense

Dr. Joseph Evans, as the principal director for 5G in the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering within the office of the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, is responsible for coordinating 5G initiatives in the Department of Defense. 

He also oversees the DoD’s “5G to Next G” R&D portfolio and advises the USD (R&E) on 5G-related topics. 

From 2015 to 2019, Evans was a program manager in the DARPA Strategic Technology Office, where he initiated the Secure Handhelds on Assured Resilient networks at the tactical edge and Geospatial Cloud Analytics programs. 

During his four-year stint, he also managed other programs, including the Mobile Hotspots, RadioMap, Shared Spectrum Access for Radar and Communications, Communications Under Extreme RF Spectrum Conditions, Wireless Network Defense and Dynamic Network Adaptation for Mission Optimization.

Previously, Evans served as a professor for 30 years at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. His most recent position was the Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.  

He also took on various administrative posts and spearheaded research programs in the areas of adaptive networking and communications systems, high-speed network testbeds, rapidly deployable broadband wireless systems and spectrum sharing technologies.

From 2003 to 2005, Evans was a program director in the division of computer and network systems, Directorate of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation. For two years, he was in charge of multi-organizational networking research efforts in wireless networking, cybersecurity, optical networking and scientific applications.

He was a co-founder and member of the board of directors at NetGames U.S., a network gaming company that Microsoft purchased in 2000. He was also a partner and chief scientist at Ascend Intelligence, which developed DARPA’s Tactical Ground Reporting System and was acquired by General Dynamics in 2010.

Evans graduated from Lafayette College with a degree in electrical engineering and earned his master’s and doctorate degrees from Princeton University.