Additional Title(s)
Senior Program Manager: Power & Propulsion, Directed Energy at Lockheed Martin
Biography
Dr. Steven Shepard has 18 years of experience at Lockheed Martin (LM), where he serves as the Sr. R&D Program Manager for Power & Propulsion (P&P), as well as Counter-Directed Energy Weapons (C-DEW), under LM’s Corporate Technology Office. In this role, Dr. Shepard reports up through LM’s chief technology officer Dr. Steve Walker and is responsible for providing thought leadership and execution over the corporation’s cross-BA research efforts in P&P and C-DEW, including IRAD and CRAD portfolios for the Department of Defense and NASA.
Research includes electrification for UAVs and vertical takeoff and lift aircraft, nuclear fission heat-to-power for Lunar surface power and nuclear thermal propulsion, advanced power and energy storage, including solid-state batteries to increase available platform energy densities, air-breathing and high-powered electric propulsion, advanced hypersonic propulsion, on-orbit refueling, power beaming, aircraft inlet design optimization and advanced C-DEW materials development for various aerospace platforms.
Prior to this, Dr. Shepard was the Research Manager for Advanced Materials and Energetics under the Hypersonics and Advanced Materials Directorate at LM’s Advanced Technology Center, where he led a team of scientists and engineers on research and technology insertion for LM platforms. This research included modeling, simulation and testing of high energy laser (HEL) material interactions, where Dr. Shepard led a corporate-wide C-HEL IRAD in conjunction with AFRL/RXAP for material hardening research.
Dr. Shepard was the thermal control subsystem manager for an optical payload program that was delivered to a $1B+ classified effort, where he was responsible for the design, analysis, integration and testing of the thermal control subsystem. This included overseeing a team of engineers and technicians, while reporting to customers and submitting contract deliverables. Earlier in his career, Dr. Shepard was the lead for multiple thermal and propulsion programs under various customers, including the successful launch of three satellites and the Orion crew module through Exploration Flight Test-1.
Dr. Shepard received his bachelor’s (Magna Cum Laude) and master’s degrees from the University of Michigan in aerospace engineering, where he was accepted into the Sigma Gamma Tau Aerospace Engineering Honor Society, as well as his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Santa Clara University. He is presently pursuing a certificate in Stanford’s entrepreneurship and innovation program and is active in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr. Shepard serves on the Industrial Advisory Board for both the University of Michigan’s Aerospace Engineering Department and NASA’s Joint Advanced Propulsion Institute.