Dr. Michael Jirjis (Past Speaker)

Dr. Michael Jirjis is the lead for the Air Force’s Directed Energy Weapons Experimentation Campaign being ran out of the Strategic Development Planning & Experimentation Office (SDPE) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH. He was born in Columbus, Ohio on 24 August 1985. He graduated from Wayzata High School, Minnesota in 2004 and obtained his Bachelor of Science (2009) and Doctoral degrees (2013) from Marquette University. While obtaining his education, Dr. Jirjis has worked in the biotechnology division at Cargill Inc, with a focus on biological culture production and analysis. He has also had considerable amount of experience in the medical device industry working for both Medtronic and Boston Scientific on medical defibrillators, pacemakers, and cardiac stents. During his graduate research, Dr. Jirjis managed and conducted human and animal experiments in spinal cord injury, stem cell development, and medical imaging fields across three institutions.
 
Before joining the Air Force, Dr. Jirjis worked as a defense contractor for General Dynamics acting as a subject matter expert (SME) for human effects of non-lethal weapon technology development for the Department of Defense’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. Dr. Jirjis transitioned to the Air Force in 2014 and was the Deputy Program Manager for the radio frequency bioeffects group, leading biological effect based experimental studies with radio frequency technology. 

Currently, Dr. Jirjis is the Chief of Directed Energy Experimentation Campaigns and the action officer for the Air Force’s Directed Energy Weapons Flight Plan. He oversees the activities and changes to the Air Force that support the operationalization of directed energy for three specific use cases: Forward Airbase Defense, Precision Engagement, and Aircraft Self-Protect. The experimentation campaign looks to accelerate the transition of Directed Energy Weapons and provide input to Senior Leaders and the Air Force investment strategy.