Challenges in technology development

🎓Brief abstract:
I will discuss various challenges in technology development drawing from my experience both as a practitioner and as a manager. We will look at the technology development experiences from leading USA R&D programs, including but not limited NASA, discuss challenges of large scale technology projects, including the complexity of knowledge and funding attraction at the technological frontiers.
💡Brief presenter’s bio:
A professor of physics at Caltech, prof. Jonas Zmuidzinas has 40+ years experience in developing technology for astronomy with a focus on superconducting devices and detectors. He has also held various management positions including serving as Director of the NASA/JPL Microdevices Laboratory (2007-2011), as NASA/JPL Chief Technologist (2011-2016), and as Director of the Caltech Optical Observatories (2018-2023). As JPL Chief Technologist, he was responsible for oversight of the internal R&D program totaling around $50M annually. He has served on a number of oversight bodies including serving on the Boards for the California Association for Research in Astronomy (Keck Observatory) and the Thirty Meter Telescope project, chairing the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Visiting Committee, and chairing the nano/microelectronics review board for Sandia National Laboratories.