Dr. Joel B. Mozer, a Senior Leader Executive, is Chief Scientist, Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. The command comprises approximately 26,000 space professionals worldwide and manages a global network of satellite command and control, communications, missile warning and launch facilities and is responsible for space system development and acquisitions. Dr. Mozer serves as the principal advisor to the commander and as the senior AFSPC authority for all science and technology matters. He is delegated the authority to guide all substantive scientific and technical program activities within the command. In this role, he interacts with other principals, operational commanders, combatant commands, acquisition and international communities to address cross-organizational science and technical issues and solutions. Dr. Mozer represents AFSPC science and technology on decisions, high-level planning and policy, building coalitions and alliances throughout the U.S. government, industry, academia, the international community and other scientific and technology organizations. He evaluates technical needs, solutions, architectures, and programs and advises on shaping command programs to ensure the infusion of science and technology provides the best possible solutions.
Dr. Mozer entered government service in 1992 with the U.S. Air Force. Prior to this assignment, Dr. Joel Mozer was Chief Space Experimentalist of the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicle Directorate. In that role, he was responsible for managing AFRL’s $40 million per year investment in research and development related to the development of experimental satellites and payloads and conducted a team of 100 engineers and scientists at Kirtland and Holloman Air Force Bases in New Mexico--all working to develop cost effective ways to assemble, integrate, test and fly novel spacecraft and systems and to demonstrate new concepts for Department of Defense systems and missions. His particular area of specialization relates to space control and remote sensing—in particular understanding the natural and man-made space environment and developing forecast tools for warfighters, theater battle commanders and other decision-makers in order to mitigate risks
Dr. Mozer has more than 30 years of space science, engineering, management and financial experience working space and ground systems for the Department of Defense. In addition to the Integrated Experiments Division, he served as Chief of the Battlespace Environment Division and led the laboratory’s Space Weather Center of Excellence and was a scientist at the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak. Before coming to AFRL, Dr. Mozer worked at the Air Force’s Radar Attenuation and Scattering facility at Holloman Air Force Base where he developed measurement and analysis techniques to study the radar cross section of low-observable aircraft and technology. Prior to that, he worked for the Army’s Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory where he developed techniques to quantify the effects of natural and man-made battlefield obscurants on electro-optical sensors. A number of the methods and procedures developed by Dr. Mozer are in current use at Air Force and Navy operational weather forecasting centers.
EDUCATION
1988 Bachelor of Science, Physics, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces
1990 Master of Science, Atmospheric Science, University of Arizona, Tucson
1992 Doctorate of Philosophy, Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson
2008 Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
CAREER CHRONOLOGY
1. 1985 – 1989, Scientist, Army Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory, Las Cruces, N.M.
2. 1989 – 1992, Data Scientist, Radar Attenuation and Scattering, Holloman Air Force Base, N.M.
3. 1992 – 2001, Principal Scientist, Air Force Research Laboratory Geophysics Directorate, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
4. 2001 – 2006, Senior Solar Astronomer, Sunspot, N.M.
5. 2006 – 2011, Chief, Space Weather Center of Excellence, AFRL, Kirtland AFB, N.M.
6. 2011 – 2013, Chief, Battlespace Environment Division, AFRL, Kirtland AFB, N.M.
7. 2013 – 2016, Chief, Integrated Experiments Division, AFRL, Kirtland AFB, N.M.
8. 2016 – 2018, Chief Experimentalist, Space Vehicles Directorate, Kirtland AFB, N.M.
9. 2018 – present, Chief Scientist of Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, Colo.
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Senior member, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Senior member, American Geophysical Union
Senior member, American Meteorological Society
(Current as of April 2019)