Magic Number 39 for Air Force Physics and Electronics Research Director

  • Published
  • By William J. Sharp
  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
ARLINGTON, Va. --  It's not uncommon for people who join the Defense Department to offer 20 years of service to the nation and then call it a career. 

Dr. Forrest "Jack" Agee would probably classify 20 years as "a good start." Agee is the director of physics and electronics research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research here. In a career spanning three different service branches and nearly four decades, Agee retires Sept. 1 after 39 years of dedicated federal service. Retirement, however, is a bit of a misnomer in Agee's case. He plans to continue work in research interests and he has accepted a position at Rice University in Houston.

Throughout the world of science and technology, one thing is clear. In 39 years of service Agee has left his mark.

"Jack has built important collaborations with the large nanotechnology programs in Taiwan and Korea," said Dr. Brendan B. Godfrey, director, AFOSR.

"Doctor Agee's work in high-powered microwaves has enabled a research path to an exciting new class of weapons, while his other research efforts have had direct impact to the warfighter in delivering new weapons capabilities to the engagements in Bosnia and Desert Shield/Desert Storm," said Dr. Mark Lewis, chief scientist of the Air Force.

Noting the job demands one faces as an AFOSR director, Lewis added, "Doctor Agee retained his direct connections to the research community, continuing to be personally involved as a research manager. He will be greatly missed by the colleagues and many researchers whom he has funded and collaborated with over the years."

Doctor Agee began his career investigating the acoustics of submarines as a physicist for the Navy and then working in low-temperature physics for the Army. In the 1970s, Agee joined the Harry Diamond Laboratory to work in nuclear electromagnetic pulse hardening. He was involved in testing the Safeguard antiballistic missile system and other Army tactical systems. As technical director, he led a major strategic Defense Nuclear Agency electromagnetic pulse test for the pacific forces.

Agee worked with strategic command control and communications (C3) systems including the Airborne Command Post as a manager at BDM Corp. In 1982, he returned to the Harry Diamond Laboratories as the director of the AURORA Radiation Facility. While there he was involved in testing the Peacekeeper missile and other systems. Moving to the field of high-power microwaves in 1990, Agee became program manager for this field for the Army. His efforts led to the development of the AN/VLQ-9 SHORTSTOP electronic warfare system developed for Desert Shield/Storm and deployed to Bosnia.

In 1993, Agee began his association with the Air Force Research Laboratory in the directed energy program at the Phillips Laboratory, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. At Kirtland, he led the research and development program in high power microwave sources. In 1998, he was promoted to senior executive service and moved to his current position with AFOSR.

At AFOSR, Agee directed a multi-million dollar physics and electronics research budget. The research focuses include lasers, plasmas, high-power radio frequency sources, atomic and nuclear physics, space optics and imaging, nanotechnology, and optoelectronics.

Agee's principal fields of interest are pulsed power, microwave generation, nuclear physics, plasma physics, and electromagnetics. In 1990, Agee formed the Joint Directors of Laboratories Panel on Directed Energy Weapons and chaired the panel until 1993. He has authored more than 200 publications and inventions in these areas.

"My various experiences with the armed forces and with private industry taught me many things and I've tried to apply what I've learned to my AFOSR duties wherever practical," Agee said. "When I started here (AFOSR), we had about $37 million in our department's budget. Last year's number was about $80 million. I think this is a result of encouraging my program managers - and being actively involved in mentoring - to build a better basic research program. If we concentrate on Air Force needs and invest in programs that have the broadest possible application, you will, in my opinion, make a basic research program thrive.

"Always striving to build better programs is a role of program managers and directors alike," he said. "Both program managers and directors have a strategic talent for course plotting, but they are also talented tacticians. This combination of skills allows us to do many great and wondrous things."

At Rice University, Agee will be executive director of the SPRING/CONTACT program. It is a nanoscience research program involving seven Texas universities to include Rice, the University of Houston, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Texas at Dallas.