Dr. James Paul Holloway is a Professor of Nuclear Engineering and serves as the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of New Mexico. After receiving the M.S. in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Illinois (1984), he completed a CAS in Mathematics at Cambridge University (1985) and a doctorate in Engineering Physics at the University of Virginia (1989). His professional pathway has balanced a commitment to research with a commitment to education, first at the University of Virginia and, for most of his career, at the University of Michigan where he was ultimately appointed Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (now Emeritus) and also served in administrative roles, including as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the College of Engineering and as the Vice Provost for Global Engagement & Interdisciplinary Academic Affairs.

Dr. Holloway's research focuses on computational and mathematical modeling with applications that span neutron and photon radiation transport theory, uncertainty quantification, nuclear reactor physics and control, nonlinear dynamics, inverse problems, and plasma kinetic theory. He has also taught appropriate technology development both in the US and abroad in both Ghana and Thailand. He has authored over fifty articles, over eighty refereed conference papers and summaries, a textbook, a biography, and a variety of publications on education and other matters. He has supervised over twenty dissertations. His induction into the Order of the Engineer in 2003 complements his other honor society inductions and both service and leadership in myriad professional societies. As Provost and EVP for Academic Affairs at UNM, he is focused on fostering the excellence of the educational and research environment of UNM, for the goal of positive impact on individuals and communities in New Mexico and across the globe.

Dr. Houssam Toutanji is dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and professor of Civil Engineering and Construction Management at California State University Northridge (CSUN). Prior to joining CSUN, he served as the Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Western Michigan University (WMU), and Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education and Associate Director of the University Transportation Center for Alabama at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). He graduated from Northeastern University in Boston Massachusetts with BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering and from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester Massachusetts with Ph.D. in Civil Engineering.

Dr. Toutanji’s research interests include: processing and mechanics of composites, smart materials and smart structures, concrete technology, high performance concrete, sustainable construction materials, bridge design, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, infrastructure renewal and multi-threat mitigation (including blast), impact/damage mechanics, fracture fatigue, nondestructive assessment of materials and structures, bridge design, and structural health monitoring. He is the author/co-author over 80 refereed archival papers in scientific journals and over 120 papers in conference proceedings, in addition to author and contributor to monographs, chapters in books, technical reports, and holder of 1 patent. He has served as principal or co-principal investigator on research projects funded by NSF, DOD, NOAA, NASA, Army Corps of Engineers, ALDOT, and UTCA - whose cumulative funding exceeds $7.0 million. He advised 18 doctoral students to completion.

Dr. Toutanji holds a position as a Research Visiting Scholar at Cergy-Pontoise University's Civil Engineering Department and a Visiting Professor at the University of Gent, Department of Structural Engineering (Gent-Belgium). Dr. Toutanji is a recipient of the National Science Foundation's CAREER award. He also received the NSF-EPSCoR Scholarly Productivity Award, for two years in a row, for research performance, intrinsic merit of research work, and for potential in research. He was selected by the National Science Foundation 14 times to be part of U.S. delegations participating in international conferences and workshops on FRP composites for repair and bridge design. He served as the Associate Director of the University Transportation Center for Alabama (UTCA) for six years. He served an Associate Editor of a number of Journals. He is a Fellow of American Society of Civil Engineers and an ABET evaluator for the same society.

Dr. William (Bill) Spotz is a Program Manager for Applied Mathematics at Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. Previously he was a Senior Staff in Multiphysics Applications at CSRI. He brings extensive experiences in Trilinos packages development and program management (DOE ASCR). He is the lead of the Trilinos User Experience (UX) capability area, and the lead developer of Trilinos packages PyTrilinos (Python interfaces to Trilinos) and Domi (distributed multi-dimensional data structures). His research interests have spanned a broad swath of topics within the computational sciences. These include high-order accuracy numerical approximation methods, global atmosphere and climate modeling, linear and nonlinear solver techniques, multiphysics coupling techniques, graph algorithms, and high-performance computing for high-level languages. His research experiences include uncertainty quantification where the capability to take uncertainties in the input, propagate them through the physics of the problem, and quantify how they affect the output; and performance portability. He holds PhD, M.S., and B.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering all from UT Austin and has postdoctoral research experience from NCAR.

Mr. Edward J. Lee is the Program Coordinator for Historically Black Colleges and Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI’s) for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in Arlington, VA, one of the 9 directorates that comprise the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). He is responsible for coordinating activities that provide funding support to minority institutions across the nation. Mr. Lee provides leadership, strategic direction, and oversight to universities to help make them aware of opportunities and facilitates introductions and guidance to ensure institutions of higher education are well represented within the minority community. He has a unique way of communicating and can talk to everyone to make them feel special, from students to university Presidents. Mr. Lee has taken on the task of coordinating activities with the small business programs of SBIR and STTR geared towards fostering the commercialization of products to the warfighter for the Department of Defense.

Mr. Lee has worked for the AFOSR since 1997, initially overseeing the University Research Initiative program. He is now working to enhance communications between HBCU’s and MI’s to be able to compete for contracts/grants at a larger scale. Working in private industry prior to coming to AFOSR and owning his own business since 1987, EJL Associates, Ed has helped to establish and support black-owned businesses in the Washington Metropolitan area. Ed is also a graduate from an HBCU, Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland and in 2013 authored his first book, The Soul of Man. Mr. Lee has a B.S. in Business Administration from Morgan State University in Baltimore Maryland.

Rajesh Mehta has been a SBIR/STTR Program Director since 2012. Prior to joining NSF in 2012, he was a senior research technologist at Kodak where his 26-year career spanned work at Kodak Research Laboratories, and Manufacturing Research and Engineering Organization. His work covered a broad range of materials science based technologies related to photographic film and paper manufacturing, thermal, inkjet, and electro-photographic printing, and OLED device manufacturing. He has a B. Tech. degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Penn State, a post-doctoral fellowship at Imperial College, and a M.S. degree in New Product Development from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Dr. Brett Pokines is the Program Officer for the Agile Science for Test and Evaluation portfolio of the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Arlington, Va. In this role he leads the Air Force basic research investment pioneering fundamental Test & Evaluation (T&E) research revolutionizing test sciences, transforming critical USAF T&E capabilities and vitalizing the test workforce.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Pokines was an International Program Officer, at the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Arlington, Va. and a Program Officer, Assistant Attaché, at the Southern Office of Aerospace Research and Development, U.S. Embassy Santiago, Chile. In these roles Dr. Pokines ensured the success of the AFOSR international investment and partnering in Engineering and Complex Systems, Information and Networks, Physical Sciences and Chemistry and Biological Sciences.

Before entering public service, Dr. Pokines was a Senior Project Engineer at Moog Inc. in Buffalo, New York, engineering space-flight systems. Prior to working at Moog, Dr. Pokines was a Visiting Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York and supported United States Air Force and Navy science through Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) assignments in Tokyo, Japan.