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At present, Dr. Frank Fernandez, is a member of the Board of Directors of several companies and leads a consulting company with clients in both the defense and civilian research and development sectors.
Prior to this he was a Distinguished Research Professor in Systems Engineering and Technology Management at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was the creator and first Director of Institute Technology Initiatives, a position reporting directly to the President. In this capacity he served as the chief technical advisor to the President in all matters having to do with Institute research initiatives, management of Institute intellectual property and commercialization of Institute technology. He retired from Stevens in 2005. |
| Prior to this, he was Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the central R&D organization of the Department of Defense. Dr. Fernandez was appointed as Director of DARPA on May 10, 1998. Under Dr Fernandez' leadership, DARPA served as the Department of Defense's premier change-leader, trailblazing paths in biological warfare defense, information security, precision strike and robotics.
Until his appointment as Director, DARPA, Dr. Fernandez held the position of President and Chairman of the Board of Directors for AETC Inc., a firm specializing in environmental surveillance, which he founded in 1994. Prior to this position, he was President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Areté Associates, a Los Angeles-based applied research firm that Dr. Fernandez founded in 1976. Areté Associates has a national reputation in the use of advanced sensors and signal processing for the detection and classification of concealed targets. Prior to that he worked at the Aerospace Corporation and at Lockheed.
Dr. Fernandez was a member of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Executive Panel from 1983 until his appointment at DARPA. In this capacity, he provided advice to the CNO on a variety of issues. Currently, Dr. Fernandez is Chairman of the Naval Research Advisory Committee (NRAC), a committee chartered by law to advise the Secretary of the Navy on critical R&D issues. He is also a member of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Panel, reporting to the Undersecretary for Science and Technology.
In January 2001, Dr. Fernandez was awarded the Distinguished Public Service Award by the Secretary of Defense. Dr. Fernandez was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Engineering Degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in May 2001.
Dr. Fernandez received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Science in Applied Mechanics from Stevens Institute of Technology in New York, 1960-1961; and his Ph.D. in Aeronautics from California Institute of Technology in 1969. |
