John H. Hammond

2019 Distinguished Alumni Award

For exceptional leadership in the field of high energy lasers, and particularly with respect to military applications.

Dr. Hammond retired from Lockheed Martin in 2009 as Vice President, Technology at its Bethesda, MD headquarters. He and his staff coordinated internal R&D across the corporation’s business areas and directly managed cross-cutting initiatives including those with Sandia National Laboratory, General Electric’s Global Research Center and several universities. He also served for six months as Acting Chief Technical Officer and earlier in the space and strategic missiles business area where he contributed to satellite, launch vehicle and interceptor programs.  He represented Lockheed Martin externally on numerous occasions and consulted for the Defense Science Board.

Previous aerospace positions included Board Member and Vice President at Schafer Corp., a technical analysis firm, and Vice President for Satellite Products at Defense Systems, Inc.  Earlier, he served as Vice President of Western Research Corp.  He has managed programs, developed business and contributed technically in areas including laser devices, laser propagation, small satellites, missile interceptors and unmanned air vehicles.  He led a multi-company team comparing options for boost-phase missile defense.  His work in optics and lasers has also addressed inertial plasma confinement.

In the Defense Department’s Senior Executive Service, he headed the office in the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization responsible for laser and particle beam weapons R&D and associated target acquisition/tracking and precision beam pointing.  He also contributed to miniaturized kinetic hit-to-kill vehicles and overall ballistic missile defense system architecture efforts.  Dr. Hammond represented SDIO with congressional testimony and at arms control negotiations in Geneva.  After receiving his degrees in Electrical Engineering and an ROTC commission at the University of Illinois, he served in the Army and civil service at Huntsville, AL.

Since retiring from full-time employment, he has provided part-time scientific and engineering support for defense programs, and volunteered on the National Academies Board on Army Science and Technology. He resides in Virginia with his wife of over fifty years.