Dr. Francesca Scire-Scappuzzo is a Defense Innovation Strategist with extensive experience in rapid technology development from idea to adoption across Aerospace, Defense, and National Security. Francesca has held senior R&D and strategy roles in global companies and fast‑moving startups. She served as Corporate VP, Science & Technology at QinetiQ and as Senior Director, Advanced Technologies at BAE Systems, leading multi-disciplinary teams and implementing long‑range technology roadmaps for complex portfolios of products. She has experience in startups as co-founder and CEO of Ondetech and as CTO at Metamagnetics. She was Chief Scientist for large defense contractors and Principal Scientist in Small Business, where she led tens of government contracts that resulted in over 30 publications, 10 patents, 2 books chapters, and technology transfer to programs of record. Prior to moving to the US, she was Tenured Professor of EE in Italy. Francesca earned her BS in EE from University of Catania, Italy, MS at MIT in the USA, and PhD from ETH Zurich. She was postgraduate at ESA/ESTEC (The Netherlands) and visiting scientist at MIT RLE and Harvard–CfA. Francesca is Chair of IEEE AESS Boston and received the 2019 IEEE award for “Managerial Excellence in an Engineering Organization”.