Barbara McQuiston Elected as Chair of NATO DIANA Board; Heidi Shyu Quoted
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Barbara McQuiston Elected as Chair of NATO DIANA Board; Heidi Shyu Quoted

Barbara McQuiston, deputy chief technology officer for science and technology in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, has been elected as chair of NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator of the North Atlantic initiative’s Board of Directors.

As chair, McQuiston will help the new civil-military accelerator achieve initial operating capability, drive efforts to boost transatlantic cooperation on critical technology development and promote collaboration with non-governmental entities, the Department of Defense said Tuesday.

Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering and two-time Wash100 Award winner, said NATO DIANA “will have steady, expert leadership with Barbara at the helm.”

“In this critical role, she will be well positioned to put her extensive knowledge and experience to work and help put the Alliance’s innovation efforts on the right path for the future,” Shyu added.

McQuiston was appointed as the U.S. representative to the board of directors for the NATO DIANA initiative in October 2022 to work with other allied nations to set the program’s strategic direction.

DIANA aims to bring the defense community and NATO experts together to develop technologies in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, big data processing and space and autonomy, among others.

NATO expects the program to be operational by 2023.

POC - 9th Annual Defense Research and Development Summit

Shyu is set to speak at the Potomac Officers Club’s 9th Annual Defense and Research Summit on March 23. Click here to register for the event, which will bring together experts in the field to discuss DOD innovation priorities in areas of AI, microelectronics, hypersonics and other emerging technologies.

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State Department’s New Office for Critical, Emerging Technology Begins Operations
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State Department’s New Office for Critical, Emerging Technology Begins Operations

The Department of State has begun operating its new Office of the Special Envoy for Critical and Emerging Technology to help develop and coordinate foreign policy on emerging and critical technologies.

Seth Center, a national security expert and historian, will serve as deputy envoy and oversee the buildout of the newly created office, the State Department said Tuesday.

State Secretary and Wash100 awardee Antony Blinken formed the new office as part of a modernization effort as critical and emerging technologies become part of the U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy amid the increasing competition to build and field new technologies.

The office will bring technological policy expertise, diplomatic leadership and strategic direction to the department’s work surrounding these technologies.

It will also collaborate with the department’s other offices and bureaus that are pursuing technology topics and work with international partners on artificial intelligence, advanced computing, biotechnology and quantum information technologies.

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HR Veteran Daniel Almasy Named CHRO of SOSi; Julian Setian Quoted
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HR Veteran Daniel Almasy Named CHRO of SOSi; Julian Setian Quoted

Daniel Almasy, a former Raytheon Technologies executive, has been appointed chief human resources officer of SOSi.

In this position, Almasy will oversee workforce planning and development, talent acquisition and training, compensation and benefits and labor relations, among other responsibilities, the Reston, Virginia-based company announced on Wednesday.

“Dan is among the most seasoned and accomplished HR executives in our industry. His experience implementing effective leadership and workforce development programs at one of the largest and most successful companies in the defense and aerospace industry is unparalleled, and it reflects where SOSi is headed in the future,” said Julian Setian, CEO of SOSi and a two-time Wash100 Award winner.

In addition, Almasay will oversee employee engagement and communications and diversity and inclusion programming in his new role.

Almasy spent over two decades at Raytheon Technologies before joining SOSi. Most recently, he held the CHRO role within the organization’s $15 billion intelligence and space business unit, which employs 25,000 staff across the globe.

Earlier, Almasy served as vice president of human resources and security at Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, where he supervised all areas of human resources for the $7 billion sector.

The executive began his career through the Raytheon leadership development program, where he progressed through human resources and labor relations roles at legacy Raytheon businesses in several locations.

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AFRL Details Funding Opportunity for Aeroscience Collaborative R&D
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AFRL Details Funding Opportunity for Aeroscience Collaborative R&D

The Air Force Research Laboratory has issued a broad agency announcement on a funding opportunity worth potentially $31.5 million to pursue aerospace system advancement.

An updated BAA posted Thursday on SAM.gov calls for interested parties to submit proposals for the Aeroscience Collaborative Research and Development program through Jan. 16.

The ACoRD program will involve efforts to transfer ideas, methods, tools and processes from the basic research and applications communities to the military laboratory environment; evaluate the performance of technologies; quantify integrated systems; and bring new platforms with accompanying analysis, modeling and simulation and experimental data to both commercial industry and the warfighter.

AFRL expects to issue a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with an estimated base value of $17.5 million and two options totaling a combined $14 million.

Legislative Leaders Name Members of National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology
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Legislative Leaders Name Members of National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology

Leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have unveiled the full list of members appointed to serve on an intergovernmental panel tasked with providing recommendations related to advances in emerging biotechnology.

Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Boston, Massachusetts-headquartered biotechnology company Ginkgo Bioworks, and Michelle Rozo, former director for technology and national security on the National Security Council, were respectively named chair and vice chair of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, the HASC said Friday. 

The 12-member national security commission was established in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2022 to review the impact of biotechnology and associated technologies on the Department of Defense’s current and future activities.

In addition to Kelly and Rozo, the appointed commissioners are: 

  • Paul Arcangeli, a former staff director for the HASC
  • Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla.
  • Angela Belcher, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Biological Engineering
  • Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
  • Dawn Meyerriecks, former deputy director of CIA for science and technology
  • Sen. Jose Padilla, D-Calif.
  • Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google and chairman of the Defense Innovation Board
  • Alexander Titus, former assistant director for biotechnology at the Office of Under Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering
  • Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind.
  • Dov Zakheim, former undersecretary of defense and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense

The NDAA requires the commission to submit an interim report to Congress within one year of its establishment and provide final recommendations within two years.

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NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg: Ukraine Needs Long-Term Military Support
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NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg: Ukraine Needs Long-Term Military Support

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg advised Western countries to offer long-term support to Ukraine amid Russia’s unrelenting campaign against the Eastern European country, BBC News reported Monday.

“We need to provide support to Ukraine now, including military support, because that’s the only way to convince Russia that they have to sit down and negotiate in good faith and respect Ukraine as a sovereign independent nation in Europe,” Stoltenberg said.

“…What Ukraine can achieve around that table is totally dependent on the strength on the battlefield,” he added.

Stoltenberg told BBC Radio 4 that the partial mobilization initiative ordered by Russia in September “indicates that they are prepared to continue the war and also try to potentially launch a new offensive.”

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Omnibus Spending Bill Allocates $1.8B in Funding for VA EHR Deployment
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Omnibus Spending Bill Allocates $1.8B in Funding for VA EHR Deployment

The Department of Veterans Affairs will receive $1.8 billion in funding under the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill to support the rollout of its electronic health record system to facilities across the country in 2023, Nextgov reported Friday.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, which President Biden signed into law Thursday, allows the continued deployment of the Cerner-designed EHR system at VA-run facilities.

VA is moving forward with the EHR deployment despite reported system outages, concerns about patient safety risks and cost overruns.

In early December, VA issued a presolicitation notice on a potential single-award contract to provide training and administrative space to support the department’s EHR modernization effort at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center.

The draft solicitation was released less than two months after VA awarded Cerner a pair of task orders worth $956 million combined to continue to roll out the EHR system.

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NASA, HAARP Explore Asteroid’s Interior Through Experiment
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NASA, HAARP Explore Asteroid’s Interior Through Experiment

NASA and the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program have completed an experiment aimed at understanding the interior of an asteroid in hopes of supporting efforts to develop a potential defense against near-Earth objects that could pose a risk to Earth.

During the study, HAARP transmitted long wavelength radio signals into space that bounced off the surface of 2010 XC15, the asteroid that passes by Earth at two lunar distances and is estimated to be about 500 feet across, the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said Thursday.

“We will be analyzing the data over the next few weeks and hope to publish the results in the coming months,” said Mark Haynes, lead investigator on the project and a radar systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“This shows the value of HAARP as a potential future research tool for the study of near-Earth objects,” Haynes added.

The Soccorro-adjacent University of New Mexico Long Wavelength Array and the Bishop, California-adjacent Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array also participated in the experiment.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks is responsible for operating HAARP through an agreement with the U.S. Air Force.

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House Lawmakers Urge Senate to Ensure Regular Order by Passing Version of NDAA
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House Lawmakers Urge Senate to Ensure Regular Order by Passing Version of NDAA

U.S. House of Representatives Congressmen Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Don Bacon, R-Neb., said the Senate should complete its duties and be serious in ensuring national security by considering and passing its version of the National Defense Authorization Act.

Although the fiscal year 2023 NDAA was signed into law in December, the upper chamber did not advance a “fair and transparent process with the House” by failing to pass its version of the defense policy bill for the second consecutive year, Golden and Bacon wrote in an opinion piece published Monday on The Hill.

“Without a Senate-passed bill, members of the Senate and House are not appointed as conferees, leaving the bill to be negotiated exclusively by leadership and select staff behind closed doors,” they wrote.

“This procedure also manufactures an 11th-hour authorization for all funding and programs for our entire national security apparatus. It is irresponsible for Congress to wait until the last possible moment to provide for the common defense,” the lawmakers added.

Bacon and Golden, who serve as co-chairs of the For Country Caucus, said the Senate should pass the defense authorization measure on time and ensure regular order to enable the Department of Defense to better counter the threats posed by China and Russia and offer certainty to military personnel and their families.

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PV Puvvada, NetImpact CEO, Talks Top GovCon Tech Trends in Q&A
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PV Puvvada, NetImpact CEO, Talks Top GovCon Tech Trends in Q&A

NetImpact CEO and six-time Wash100 Award winner PV Puvvada recently participated in an interview with GovCon Wire, during which he discussed a variety of technology trends currently influencing the federal landscape.

The Q&A, which was published on Tuesday, tackled cloud migration, the importance of digital dexterity and emerging technologies.

Here is an excerpt from the interview with Puvvada:

“At its heart, the concept of digital dexterity is the ability of organizations such as government agencies — and more importantly its workforce — to be able to be more effective in using digital tools. This digitally dexterous state could enable employees to be more collaborative and be more analytical in the way they approach their work especially by unlocking the use of the data that is underlying all their processes. Digital dexterity unleashes employees’ creativity rather than frustrations.”

Visit GovCon Wire to read the full conversation with PV Puvvada.

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