For years, Zachary Lemnios helped spearhead the military's advanced research into turbo-powered microelectronics, labs-on-chips, and learning machines. Now, the electrical engineer is set to become the Pentagon's geek-in-chief.
On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced its intent to nominate Lemnios as Director of Defense Research & Engineering. That would make Lemnios the military's top science and technology executive, responsible for about $12 billion worth of programs. For most of the last two decades, Lemnios has held a variety of positions at MIT's government-sponsored Lincoln Laboratory and at Darpa, the Pentagon's way-out research arm. He currently serves at Lincoln Lab's chief technology officer.
Former colleagues gushed over Lemnios' upcoming nomination as the military's new alpha geek. "I am amazed we got him," a former -- and future -- associate adds. "I can't imagine better. Broad thinker. Good people person. Understands science and technology both inside DoD [Department of Defense] and out. So, yes. He is a keeper."
"He's an incredibly reasonable guy. A thoughtful guy. He gets along with people. And he's good at encouraging people to be creative," Ron Brachman, Lemnios' former boss at Darpa's Information Processing Technology Office (IPTO), tells Danger Room. "I'm wildly excited. I'm a big fan. He helped me tremendously."
Together with Brachman, Lemnios help set up IPTO, Darpa's hub for "cognitive systems" research -- nudging the artificial intelligence field away from a rigid, statistical-based approach and towards a learning model. They shepherded the agency's efforts into automated translation, algorithms that could build on prior experiences, and software assistants that could adapt to their human users.
Then, in 2003, Lemnios moved to head up the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) -- Darpa's center for developing new circuitry and new miniature machines. Lemnios already had deep experience in the field. He held four patents on semiconductors that relied on gallium arsenide, instead of silicon. And he had managed the military's involvement in SEMATECH, the microelectronics consortium.
At MTO, Lemnios led the push to build matchbook-sized machines that he hoped would one day "change everything: from the way we buy groceries to the way we diagnose and treat diseases," he told a 2004 conference. "They'll be able to operate unattended for years at a time, and they'll give the DoD an overwhelming capability and advantage in response to surprise or emerging threats." In the meantime, Lemnios' office made strides in tiny biological agent detectors and hyperspectral imagers, as well as radar components an order of magnitude more powerful than the current state of the art.
Today, MTO is working on everything from teeny-tiny super-chillers to cyborg, remotely-controllable insects. That work - along with everything else the Defense Department's researchers do -- will be under Lemnios, if he's confirmed by the Senate.
