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SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Mitchell Zakin Senior Vice President, Innovation Mitchell Zakin is a visionary chemist and prolific idea generator. Most recently, he has conceived and overseen highly-acclaimed projects in the emerging field of InfoChemistry, the fusion of information technology with materials to create radically new capabilities for the warfighter and military medicine. A practical futurist credited with reviving the chemistry discipline at DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), Dr. Zakin created the roadmap for ground-breaking inventions, such as Chemical Robots and Fracture Putty, which have blurred the distinction between materials and machines. His current interests focus on the fusion of mind and matter, at the intersection of the cognitive and physical sciences, with application to areas including robotics, prosthetics, energy, pharmaceuticals, rehabilitation, and clinical medicine. Prior to joining Aptima, Dr. Zakin served as a Program Manager in the Defense Sciences Office of DARPA, where he created and managed a $100 million R&D program portfolio that broke through the boundaries of conventional chemistry. The portfolio included Chemical Robots (ChemBots), a new class of soft, flexible, mobile objects that can change shape and maneuver through openings smaller than their dimensions to perform various tasks; Fracture Putty, a fully load-bearing material which rapidly restores ambulatory function to patients with severe orthopedic fractures, and which dissolves over time as normal bone regenerates; Programmable Matter, a new functional form of matter that can assemble into complex 3D objects upon external command,and then disassemble for reuse; Chemical Communications, a new class of self-powered modulated optical communications systems based solely on chemistry; and Instant Fire Suppression, a radically new approach for extinguishing and controlling fire via manipulation of the flame plasma. Prior to joining DARPA, Dr. Zakin established the Life Sciences business area at Physical Sciences, Inc. where he applied innovative chemistry to areas including assays, clinical diagnostics, and materials. Earlier, Dr. Zakin was with Spectral Sciences, Inc., where he performed research in the areas of chemical detection, spectroscopy, radiation transport, and sonoluminescence. During the past 20 years, he has also served as an advisor and consultant to private industry. Dr. Zakin received a Ph.D. and A.M. in Physical Chemistry from Harvard University, and a B.S. in Chemistry (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi) from the City College of New York. After completing the Ph.D., he served as a postdoctoral research fellow at Exxon Research and Engineering Company, exploring the properties of nanostructured materials. Dr. Zakin has 4 U.S. patents, has authored over 25 articles in peer-reviewed technical publications, and is a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society. Webb Stacy Vice President, Technology Webb Stacy has more than 20 years of experience in formulating and delivering products in high-tech settings ranging from high-performance scientific computing to enterprise clinical data management. He co-founded a company whose vision was to revolutionize software development using diagrams instead of computer languages, and was awarded a U.S. patent on the technology. Dr. Stacy is responsible for Aptima’s current and future strategic technology portfolio, and is involved in creating intelligent systems for modeling and assessing human performance. Dr. Stacy co-founded Softron, Inc., a company whose vision was to revolutionize software development by enabling programmers to create software with diagrams instead of computer languages. He was awarded a United States Patent on the technology. Prior to joining Aptima, Dr. Stacy was Vice President for Product Development at Clinsoft Corporation, the world’s largest provider of clinical software to the pharmaceutical industry. Before that, Dr. Stacy was Director of High Performance Computing Software at Compaq Computer Corporation, where he was the business lead on a team that released Visual FORTRAN. Dr. Stacy came to Compaq from CenterLine Software, Inc. where he spearheaded the development of CenterLine’s existing and new programming products for software developers. Dr. Stacy received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from SUNY/Buffalo and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery. Matt Puglisi Vice President Matt Puglisi has expertise in military and health care policy, and the health effects of military service. He has represented membership and trade associations before Congress and the Executive branch, and has served on expert panels convened by the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Mr. Puglisi served as an artillery forward observer for the First Battalion, Eighth Marines during Operation Desert Storm and commanded Battery G, Third Battalion, Fourteenth Marines. His personal decorations include the Navy Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon. Mr. Puglisi holds a Masters in Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a B.A. in Political Science from Siena College. He is a member of the Marine Corps Association, and the Naval Institute. Michael Garrity Senior Division Director, Human Performance Michael J. Garrity is an expert in training, measurement, accident causation, and knowledge elicitation techniques. Dr. Garrity directs Aptima’s training needs analysis efforts, which focus on the identification of training requirements and associated training gaps for US and NATO partner organizations. This work includes detailed front-end analyses and validation, as well as the development of metrics for assessing the effectiveness of current simulation-based training. These efforts span a variety of domains ranging from Bombers and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to operators and Senior Leaders within Air Operations Centers. Prior to joining Aptima, Dr. Garrity worked with industry partners to develop models of accident causation and to apply these models to improve safety programs and procedures for the nuclear power industry. Dr. Garrity holds a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and a M.S. in Applied Psychology from Clemson University, and a B.S. in Psychology from Appalachian State University. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Academy of Management, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Michael J. Garrity's Publications Kevin Sullivan Division Director, Software Development Kevin Sullivan has over 25 years of experience of successfully bringing software products to market in computer-aided design (CAD), artificial intelligence, manufacturing, financial, and customer relationship management (CRM). Prior to joining Aptima, Mr. Sullivan directed the MarketSoft engineering team that delivered web-based, CRM enterprise software products to the financial market. Mr. Sullivan has also worked at Cognition Corporation, where he led the development of a manufacture costing and design analysis expert system integrated with CAD modeling systems. He also led Cognition’s technology development and research in several government and consortia research projects. Prior to Cognition Corporation, Mr. Sullivan held multiple technology / engineering / management positions at Computervision Corp., the world leader in CAD-CAM development. Before embarking on his career in software development, Mr. Sullivan was an educator in the public schools. Mr. Sullivan holds a M.S. in Computer Science from Boston University and a B.S. in Science and Humanities from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Lawrence Wolpert Division Director, Consulting and Engineering Services Lawrence Wolpert has over 25 years of experience leading human systems integration (HSI) research and development in applied, academic, and military environments. He has managed all aspects of HSI (manpower, personnel, training, ergonomics, human factors engineering, safety, habitability and survivability) on multiple federal programs and conducted research in visual perception and simulation. Dr. Wolpert provides cognitive systems engineering support as well as usability evaluation and assessment. Dr. Wolpert holds a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Ohio State University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Tel Aviv University (Israel). He is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Lawrence Wolpert's Publications Shawn Weil Division Director, Modeling and Simulation Shawn Weil provides innovative, research-driven solutions to the study of organizational and command and control (C2) structures, evaluation of human performance via analysis of communications, and application of non-traditional training methodologies. His work includes the selection and application of natural language processing (NLP) techniques to assess aspects of individual and team dynamics, and the investigation of organizational adaptation through iterative model-driven experimentation. He is also a primary contributor to the design of systems that effectively manage diverse game-based experiential training. Prior to joining Aptima, Dr. Weil worked with the Air Force Research Laboratory investigating methods to improve multinational speech communication in diverse noise environments. Dr. Weil received Ph.D. and M.A. in Cognitive/Experimental Psychology from The Ohio State University with specializations in quantitative psychology, cognitive engineering, and psycholinguistics, and a B.A. in Psychology/Music from Binghamton University (SUNY). He is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the American Psychological Association, and the Cognitive Science Society. Cullen Jackson Division Director, Cognitive Systems Engineering Cullen Jackson has expertise in human performance measurement and assessment, human visual perception and cognition, and knowledge elicitation. Dr. Jackson applies his knowledge of human perceptual and cognitive capabilities to designing systems and techniques for measuring the impact of technology on human performance effectiveness. Dr. Jackson also applies his expertise to simulator- and computer-based training systems, information visualization, user interfaces and tactical displays, communications analysis techniques, and human language technologies. Dr. Jackson holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Brown University, and a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Psychology from Trinity University. He is a member of the Cognitive Science Society, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society. Cullen D. Jackson's Publications
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