Vijay Acharya
Director of Army Geospatial Center and Geospatial Research Lab and Army Geospatial Information Officer
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Mr. Vijay Acharya is serving as the Acting Director of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Army Geospatial Center (AGC) and the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Geospatial Research Lab (GRL) in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition, he is also the Army Geospatial Information Officer (GIO), which leads the Army Geospatial Enterprise.
In these roles he will guide and support the entirety of the Army’s geospatial information enterprise from enhancing the generation, management, dissemination and analysis of geospatial data through to the direct operational and systems acquisition policy support for the Army. Mr. Acharya will also be responsible for collecting/validating requirements, formulating policy, priorities, securing resources, and synchronizing solutions at both HQDA and Secretariat levels of Army governance for geospatial related initiatives.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in March 2001 from Rutgers University in Electrical Engineering (EE) and earned a Master’s EE degree in January 2005 from Stevens Institute of Technology. Mr. Acharya also earned a Master’s degree in International Affairs from The Fletcher School at Tufts University in March 2013.
From 2001-2006, Mr. Acharya was Team Lead of power management and non-electrochemical power source research at the US Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) Communications-Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center (CERDEC) in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
During 2006-2007, with the Engineer and Scientist Exchange Program (ESEP), Mr. Acharya completed language instruction with the Defense Language Institute and reported to the French Ministry of Defense’s Joint Procurement Agency (Délégation générale pour l'armement) near Paris, France for power and energy analysis of the Félin dismounted soldier system.
From 2007-2013, Mr. Acharya was the Technical Director of the US Army RDECOM, International Technology Center-France at the US Embassy in Paris. Mr. Acharya identified opportunities of bilateral cooperation, sought out innovative technologies from industry for potential acquisition by the US Army, supported senior level engagements, and established grants with universities and research centers.
From 2013-2018 he returned to RDECOM CERDEC with duty to the US Army Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, first as Lead Engineer for Soldier Power suite of programs and culminating as Lead Systems Engineer for Project Director Soldier Systems & Integration.
Mr. Acharya started at ERDC GRL in 2019 as an Associate Technical Director and served in an Acting Branch Chief detail. Most recently, he served as the Lead Geospatial Research and Engineering (GRE) Research and Development Area (RDA) Technical Director prior to a detail as the Acting GRL Director in 2023-2024.
Mr. Acharya is Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certified in multiple areas. Mr. Acharya is a member of the Defense (Army) Acquisition Corps and is a graduate of the Army Management and Staff College Civilian Advanced Course. He participated in the DARPA Service Chiefs Fellows Program in late 2017 and completed the National Security Studies Program at George Washington University in March 2023.
Mr. Acharya’s selection to the ERDC SSTM cadre was in January 2023. He is a recipient of the Department of the Army Superior Civilian Service Award from the RDECOM Director, Department of the Army Commanders Award for Civilian Service from the PEO Soldier, the Department of State Meritorious Honor Award from the US Ambassador to France, several ERDC awards, and multiple General Officer/Senior Executive Service notes. Mr. Acharya has full professional proficiency in French and is a heritage speaker of Nepali.
Mr. Acharya is a New Jersey native and resides with his family in Northern Virginia.
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