Greg Spanjers

Chief Scientist of the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation (SDPE) Directorate, AFRL

U.S. Air Force

Dr. Greg Spanjers, a member of the U.S. Air Force’s cadre of scientific and technical senior executives, is the Chief Scientist of the Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation (SDPE) Directorate, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He is responsible for providing science and technology advice and counsel for supporting Air Force development planning efforts and conducting experimentation campaigns that will result in planning choices for senior Air Force-level resource decisions.

Dr. Spanjers research experience spans more than 33 years and includes work in academia and private industry developing advanced plasma confinement, plasma diagnostics and radiation source technology. Since 1995, he has served in various science and technology positions in Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Early in his Air Force career, he served in the Electric Propulsion Group at AFRL’s Propulsion Directorate, Edwards AFB, California, as a principal scientist, research group leader, technical adviser, deputy branch chief and acting branch chief. In 2003, he became Program Manager for the Air Force’s PowerSail Program at AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. Since then he developed and led a series of research and development spacecraft programs including Demonstration and Science Experiment (DSX), Calibrated On-Orbit Objects Program (COOP) and the Third Generation Infrared Surveillance System (3GIRS and CHIRP). He was promoted to Senior Executive Service in 2008, and selected as the Air Force’s Senior Scientist for Space Experiments at the Space Vehicles Directorate. He became Chief Scientist for the Directorate in 2012, and served in that capacity until assuming his current position in 2016.

Dr. Spanjers holds nine patents, has authored more than 30 journal articles, 70 contributed papers and two book chapters. He is a Fellow of the Air Force Research Laboratory and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics (AIAA), where he also serves as Associate Editor for the AIAA’s Journal of Propulsion and Power.

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