Distinguished Speaker Series: Dr. Ralph Semmel

About the Event:

For 80 years, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab has been pushing the boundaries of technology and human discovery—from the first Pluto mission to the DART asteroid deflection.

Ralph Semmel, director of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, discusses with Dean Alex Triantis what it takes to develop and lead a culture of innovation, and the impacts of new technologies and discoveries.

Ralph Semmel
Director, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

Dr. Ralph D. Semmel became the eighth director of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory on July 1, 2010. As director, Dr. Semmel leads the nation’s largest university affiliated research center, which performs research and development on behalf of the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other federal agencies. The Laboratory has almost 8,000 staff members who are making critical contributions to a wide variety of nationally and globally significant technical and scientific challenges.

Prior to becoming Director, Dr. Semmel served as the founding head of APL’s Applied Information Sciences Department and Infocentric Operations Business Area, which conducted foundational research and development in the areas of cyber and information operations, information assurance, intelligence systems, and global information networks. Dr. Semmel also served in a variety of other executive and senior leadership positions at the Laboratory, including business area executive for Infocentric Operations, assistant head of the Power Projection Systems Department, business area executive for Science and Technology, deputy director of the Research and Technology Development Center, and supervisor of the System and Information Sciences Group. 

In addition to his APL responsibilities, Dr. Semmel served from 1997 to 2010 as chair of the graduate programs in computer science, information assurance, and information systems engineering for Johns Hopkins University’s Engineering for Professionals. He also has been program co-chair and on the program committees of several major international conferences and served on the editorial board of the International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering. He has published extensively in the areas of artificial intelligence, database systems, and software engineering. Dr. Semmel also has led and served on a variety of federal government science and technology boards, panels, and committees. He currently is a member of the Defense Science Board and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Before joining the Laboratory in 1986, Dr. Semmel held leadership and technical positions with Wang Laboratories, MITRE Corporation, and the U.S. Army.

Dr. Semmel earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a Master of Science degree in systems management from the University of Southern California, a Master of Science degree in computer science from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.