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The New Space Race:Economic, Policy and Security Issueson the Final Frontier -
Security Standards for Commercial Electronics:Beyond the Foundry -
Brian Shirley is a senior executive and advisor with over 34 years of broad-based experience in the semiconductor industry, including fourteen years as an executive officer of Micron Technology, a US-based Fortune 500 leader in semiconductor memory, as well as several years of senior consulting to the US Government on topics related to the Semiconductor Industry and US National Security.
Mr. Shirley began his career in 1988 as a product engineer on Micron’s first product, a 64K DRAM. Over the next 18 years, Mr. Shirley held a number of technical positions of increasing responsibility, leading multiple DRAM design projects and overseeing Micron’s worldwide design operations for a nine-year period. He is listed as an inventor on 82 US patents, and helped drive Micron’s expansion into specialized memory for servers, mobile and networking solutions, in addition to maintaining a focus on cost leadership and power reduction.
In early 2006, he became an officer of the company, leading multiple functions over the next 14 years including the memory business units with full P&L responsibility, as well as Micron’s worldwide engineering teams responsible for product design and development. During this time he drove further DRAM diversification, Micron’s product expansions in NAND solid-state memory and related SSD product lines, and productization of multiple emerging memory technologies. In addition, he oversaw the engineering and business integration of numerous acquisitions including Micron’s purchase of Texas Instruments’ memory operations, Elpida Memory, Lexar Memory, Numonyx Memory, and Tidal Systems. He served on the boards of numerous joint ventures and industry organizations, including Inotera Memory, Micron’s development partnership with Intel in non-volatile memory, and the Global Semiconductor Association. He has keynoted numerous industry events, presenting on a variety of technical and memory industry topics. Through these years, Micron grew from $300M of annual revenue with approximately 1500 employees all in Boise, Idaho, to its current size of over 37,000 employees worldwide with annual revenue of over $30B. Mr. Shirley retired from Micron in December 2019.
In early 2020, Mr. Shirley joined CTC Aero and began direct consulting with multiple departments of the US Government, including OSD, Commerce, and ODNI, in the areas of supply chain resilience, semiconductor geopolitical landscape, and US National Security. In addition, he is serving as a senior advisor and board member to multiple semiconductor startups.
Mr. Shirley attended Stanford University where he graduated with distinction in 1992 with a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering.
The Honorable Matthew P. Donovan is vice president of Requirements & Capabilities for Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a business of Raytheon Technologies.
Before this position, he served as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. In this role, he led the Department of Defense’s response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and published the first 10-year vision and strategy to align DOD personnel and readiness policies to national defense strategy imperatives.
Previously, Hon. Donovan also served as Under Secretary of the Air Force, Acting Secretary of the Air Force, and as policy director and professional staff member for the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. He retired from the U.S. Air Force as a colonel after 31 years of enlisted and officer active duty service and with more than 2,900 flight hours in the F-15C Eagle and F-5E Tiger II.
Hon. Donovan holds a bachelor’s degree in technical management from Regis University, and master’s degrees in management from Webster University, airpower art and science from the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Airpower Studies, and military arts and sciences from the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies. He has also earned the Secretary of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Air Force Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Aerial Achievement Medal, and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.
Dr. Pete Bythrow was appointed Chief Scientist of the Central Measurement and Signature Intelligence Organization (CMO, later renamed the National MASINT Office) in October 2000. He retired from government service in January 2016 and is now CEO Bougainvillea Breeze LLC a DC based consulting firm.
As CMO’s Chief Scientist, he oversaw the advanced R&D conducted to maintain a viable and responsive Research and Development program focused on the needs of the intelligence community. He also led the National Consortium for MASINT Research, a congressionally directed program to leverage, promote, and conduct research at universities applicable to the MASINT discipline.
As Chief Scientist for the National MASINT Office, Dr. Bythrow guided and oversaw the development of Intelligence Community MASINT technology development from legacy systems such as sea-based RADAR to cutting edge technologies such as antineutrino detection. The range of technology projects within his purview spans scientific disciplines from Hypersonic Glide Vehicles to Space Sensor Systems to MEMS based biological sensors.
From 2009 to 2016 Dr. Bythrow was MASINT lead on domestic Hypersonic Glide Vehicle testing working with DARPA, and with the Space and Missile Defense Center in Huntsville Alabama, as well as with the US Navy Dahlgren.
Peter was born in Quincy Massachusetts and received a BS (Physics) from Lowell Technological Institute in 1970; he served as a pilot in the USAF in Viet Nam until 1975. He received an MS and Ph.D. in Space-Physics from The University of Texas, Dallas. Dr. Bythrow spent the following 19 years at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory where his research spanned disciplines from the Space Plasmas to Hyperspectral remote sensing.
Dr. Bythrow is the author of scientific papers that range in topics from “The Spokes in Saturn’s Rings” to “Rapid Visible Wavelength Detection and Identification of missile Launch”.
He is a member of the AGU, and AAAS and has served on space related panels and studies for DOD, MDA, DARPA, NASA and the US House and Senate.
Peter is married to Lisa M. Janssen and resides in Columbia MD. He has three children and eight grandchildren.
After serving in Congress for 26 years, Mac Thornberry continues to work at the intersection of technology and national security. A former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, he was also a member of the House Intelligence Committee for more than a decade.
The Almanac of American Politics 2020 called Mac “one of Congress’ brainiest and most thoughtful members on national and domestic security issues.” Widely respected across the political spectrum as an innovator and a strategic thinker, Mac has led on strategic nuclear issues, homeland security, cyber and space issues, as well as enhancing innovation and improving acquisition to benefit the men and women who serve and the nation.
In December 2021, Mac received the Peace Through Strength Award from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. He is also the recipient of Distinguished Service Medals from the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, as well as awards and recognitions from a number of other organizations. On a bipartisan basis, Congress named the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act for him.
Prior to his election to Congress, Mac served in the State Department during the Reagan Administration, as staff on Capitol Hill, and practiced law. Raised on the family ranch in Donley County, Texas, Mac graduated from Texas Tech University and received a law degree from the University of Texas. He and his wife, Sally, have two children.
Dr. Waltzman has 39 years of experience performing and managing research in Artificial Intelligence applied to domains including social media and cognitive security in the information environment. He is formerly Deputy Chief Technology Officer and a Senior Information Scientist at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA. Prior to joining RAND, he was the acting Chief Technology Officer of the Software Engineering Institute (Washington, DC) of Carnegie Mellon University. Before that he did a five-year tour as a Program Manager in the Information Innovation Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where he created and managed the Social Media in Strategic Communications (SMISC) program and the Anomaly Detection at Multiple Scales (ADAMS) insider threat detection program. Dr. Waltzman joined DARPA from Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (LM-ATL), where he served as Chief Scientist for the Applied Sciences Laboratory that specializes in advanced software techniques and the computational physics of materials. Prior to LM-ATL he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, where he taught and performed research in applications of Artificial Intelligence technology to a variety of problem areas including digital entertainment, automated reasoning and decision support and cyber threat detection. Before his professorship he served as a DARPA Program Manager focusing on Artificial Intelligence and Image Understanding. Dr. Waltzman has also held research positions at the University of Maryland, Teknowledge Corporation (the first commercial Artificial Intelligence company in the world where he started in 1983), and the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington.