Event
Whiting-Turner Business & Entrepreneurial Lecture: John Langford
Thursday, November 13, 2014
4:30 p.m.
Zupnik Lecture Hall, Rm. #1110, Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
Elise Carbonaro
301 405 6501
ecarbo@umd.edu
Speaker: John S. Langford, Chairman and CEO, Aurora Flight Sciences
Talk Title: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Register online to attend this free event
Biography
John S. Langford is the Chairman and CEO of Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, which he founded in 1989.
Prior to Aurora, Langford worked for the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia. Earlier, Langford worked for the Lockheed Corporation as an engineer on the development of the F-117 stealth fighter, and as an intern at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Langford is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He received his Bachelors degree in Aeronautics (1979), Masters in Aeronautics & Astronautics (1984), Masters in Defense Policy (1983), and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Public Policy (1987) from MIT.
While at MIT, Langford organized and led a series of human-powered aircraft projects, culminating in the Daedalus Project, which in 1988 shattered the world distance and endurance records for human-powered flight with a 72 mile flight between the Greek islands of Crete and Santorini.
In 2014, the National Aeronautics Association (NAA) awarded John the Cliff Henderson Trophy for “significant and lasting contributions to the promotion and advancement of aviation and aerospace in the United States.” He has also received the DeFlorez Prize from MIT (1979), the Kremer Speed Prize from the Royal Aeronautical Society (1984), the Young Engineer of the Year award from the AIAA National Capital Section (1989), the National Tibbets Award for outstanding contributions to the SBIR Program (1996), the Barry M. Goldwater Educator Award from the AIAA (2000), Virginia’s Outstanding Industrialist award from the Commonwealth of Virginia (2004), the President’s Award for Exceptional Service (2008), and the Howard Galloway Award (2014) from the National Association of Rocketry.
