Douglas Bennett

Interested in joining a team of students or professionals for the Ignite Clean Energy Competition. I bring expert capabilites in advanced technology development creation and development, roll out, business creation, IP creation and management, as well business planning and forecasting. I a looking for a project that has a large market potential over the long run in essentially any area of clean technology from energy production to waste recycling, etc. For areas my company is currently working in, please visit www.BennettAerospace.com

In terms of backgound and education, my complete bio is below...

DOUGLAS BENNETT - BIO
Douglas Bennett is a expert in technology formation and technology’s impact on society. He is CEO of Bennett Aerospace, LLC, a company that works for NASA and US Government in advanced technology development and senior-level strategic development.

In 2004 and 2005, Douglas Bennett served as Director of The Potomac Institute of New Zealand and was the U.S. National Academy of Sciences liaison to the New Zealand Royal Society. He concurrently served as an Adjunct Senior Policy Analyst at the Royal Society of New Zealand and a Research Fellow at Potomac New Zealand’s parent organization, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC – a senior-level policy group that advises the US government on issues surrounding science and technology policy formulation.

The purpose of Potomac New Zealand was to create strategic partnerships and funding opportunities for research and development activities between the United States and New Zealand. The Potomac New Zealand governing board that Mr. Bennett formed and subsequently reported to, included among others, such notables as: Dr. Rita Colwell, the former Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Dr. Ray Colladay, the former Director of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and president of Lockheed Martin Astronautics.

Mr. Bennett is very interested in the process and difficulty of transferring technology to commercial use – and the impact on society once technologies do emerge. As such, he has spoken widely in New Zealand and the United States, including invited talks at the New Zealand Parliament, the US Embassy in Wellington, and the New Zealand Ministry of Research Science and Technology among others, on the political impacts of emerging technologies on society, the exploration of Mars, and the role advisory committees play in the formation of US science and technology policy.

Mr. Bennett previously worked for five years for the National Academy of Science’s / National Research Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board as a Study Director. In the role, he crafted public policy for the U.S. federal and state governments that shape the United State’s future technology development. While at the NRC, he directed numerous studies. Most notably, he directed a committee on Mars exploration, the recommendations of which are being used by NASA to plan for Mars robotic exploration over the next 15 years. Mr. Bennett’s other work at the NRC included directing committees that assessed the technical quality of $2 billion worth of annual funding for research and development under NASA’s Code R research program. The program covered all aspects of aeronautics and space applications including information technology, data management, nanotechnology, power and propulsion, aircraft design, bio-inspired design, and communications. For the State-level efforts, Bennett directed committees that determined in which technologies the State of Ohio invested $40 million when establishing Ohio’s Wright Centers of Excellence in the fields of nanotechnology, information technology, power generation, and aircraft propulsion.

In his other work, Mr. Bennett has led an advisory group for NASA to guide the agency in reformulating an annual $300 million technology portfolio encompassing information, computing, and communication technologies needed to meet the new challenges of NASA’s mandate of returning to the Moon by 2020. He has also served as a consultant to the US Navy, US Air Force Laboratory’s Human Effectiveness Directorate, and DARPA. For DARPA Mr. Bennett created visions of technological impact on complex battle spaces where computers read human bio-signs, including brain signatures, eye tracking and other physiological responses, to gauge a human’s mental operational capacity and adjust information flow accordingly.

Mr. Bennett co-authored, with Dr. Mike Zyda, a narrative titled “The Last Teacher” for a Department of Commerce publication “Visions 2020: Transforming Education and Training through Advanced Technologies” published in 2002. There are 13 other invited submissions for the publication and those included George Lucas of Star Wars fame and Bill Gates. In response to this report, the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Working Group on Advanced Technologies for Education and Training was established to foster the development, application, and deployment of advanced technologies in education and training in the United States – and their work continues today.

He has also worked as a consultant for NEC Corporation in Japan, and a engineer in advanced electronics manufacturing for German-based Heraeus GmbH. Mr. Bennett has spent over a year of his life on ships working for the Marine Division of Schlumberger Geco-Prakla, Inc., as a navigator for oil exploration.

His work has included extensive international collaborations with Europe, Latin America, North America, Australasia, Japan, and the West Indies, including intensive “international relations emersion training” by working on oil exploration ships, the crews of which represented 10 nationalities speaking 7 languages.

Douglas Bennett received a Mechanical Engineering Degree from Georgia Tech. He also holds a Master’s in English from Iowa State University, and a second Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies, also from Iowa State. His Master of Science studies concentrated on Astrophysics, English, and Political Science with an emphasis on Technology, Policy, and Culture. In October 2003, Mr. Bennett was awarded an outstanding alumni award from Iowa State for “bringing honor to the university” through his achievements in career and extensive volunteer efforts.


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