Speakers: Dean Gray, PhD
Dean Gray, PhD
Director of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
MRIGlobal
Dean’s technical division is primarily focused on national security and defense programs involving sensor systems, deep chemical and biological analyses, and product development. Dean manages laboratories and staff across multiple locations within and outside the continental United States, including Missouri, Virginia, Maryland, Africa, and the Middle East. Dean was recently the technical director for the Department of Defense Ebola Virus response efforts in West Africa, where his team designed and deployed mobile laboratories to multiple locations in Sierra Leone and Guinea to provide near real-time diagnostic analyses. His team led a related program in parallel to develop a first-of-its-kind commercial aircraft-compatible human transport unit, which allows medical staff to care for up to eight highly contagious patients in transit around the globe. This product – the containerized bio-containment system – was the winner of an R&D100 award in 2016. Dean is also a Board Member of the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory on the Science and Technology Committee overseeing university partnerships and technical product development.