Secretary of the United States Air Force Heather Wilson and more than 400 invited guests gathered together at Kyle Field on Friday to participate and discuss upcoming projects that could impact Air Force technology.
The Air Force Science and Technology 2030 Forum is an initiative created by Wilson in 2017 to update Air Force technology and strategy. The program looks to achieve these goals by hosting discussions about research innovations with the scientific community, prestigious universities and business professionals.
“The most important thing we’re doing over this 12-month period is rewriting the science and technologies strategy for the United States Air Force,” Wilson said. “The way we’re doing that is getting out to universities like Texas A&M to engage with researchers and just doing a lot of listening for the long term.”
The forum’s panel discussion focused on four research areas. These topics were space situational awareness; nuclear delivery systems; hypersonics, lasers and electromagnetics; and engineering and medicine. Wilson said the relationship between the Air Force and the Corps of Cadets helped contribute to these developments.
“Both the Texas A&M System and Texas A&M University have tremendous research capabilities and I think we see that, the Air Force sees that,” Wilson said. “[The relationship between the Air Force and the Corps of Cadets is] definitely a close relationship as we watch distinguished graduates to go on and have successful careers in the Air Force.”
The ideas discussed in the forum are being considered by the Chief Scientist of the Air Force Greg Zacharias. The opportunities generated through each panel will be documented in a formal report to the Secretary of the Air Force in September, and will help shape Air Force research investments over the coming decade.
Major General William Cooley, Air Force Research Laboratory Commander, helps oversee the ideas during the two day forum.
“With this initiative, we are going out to listen to Americans from higher education to small and large businesses to understand what basic and applied technologies will help us create the next game-changing inventions for 2030 and beyond,” Cooley said.
Texas A&M is one of only 17 institutions in the nation to be designated a land, sea and space agent university, as it fit well into the research discussions designated by the Air Force.
“Texas A&M is honored to host Secretary Wilson and other distinguished guests on our campus today,” Texas A&M President Michael K. Young said. “As a tier-one research university, discovery and innovation are paramount to our mission in education and also in supporting the U.S. Air Force in foreseeing tomorrow’s technology.”
Texas A&M is one of six university locations across the country to host the Air Force Science and Technology 2030 Forum. The forums were held earlier in the year at the University of Nebraska, University of South Florida, Indiana University and University of Washington. The final forum will be held next month at the University of Utah.