DFC Leadership Summit on the
Future of Technology & Applied Innovation

Sheldon Glashow is an American theoretical physicist who, with Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979 for their complementary efforts in formulating the electroweak theory, which explains the unity of electromagnetism and the weak force. Glashow received a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University in 1958. He joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley in 1962 but four years later returned to Harvard as a professor of physics, Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics from 1979 onward. He remained at Harvard until 2000, when he retired as professor emeritus. That year he became Arthur G.B. Metcalf Professor of Mathematics and Science at Boston University. In the 1960s Weinberg and Salam had each independently devised a theory by which the weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force could be conceived as manifestations of a single unified force called the electroweak force. Their theory could be applied only to leptons, however, a class of particles that includes electrons and neutrinos. Glashow found a way to extend their theory to other classes of elementary particles, notably baryons (e.g., protons and neutrons) and mesons. In doing so, Glashow had to invent a new property for quarks, which are the fundamental particles that constitute baryons and mesons. This new property, which Glashow called “charm,” provided a valuable extension of the theory of quarks.

Michael Hodge is currently a Principal at TVS. Hodge started his career at Perkins+Will-Atlanta where he served as an Architect/BIM Coordinator. Michael then moved on to Gensler, where he served as a Senior Technical Designer/Project Architect. After Gensler, Hodge worked at ASD | SKY as a Senior Designer/Architect. Michael then moved on to Praxis3, where he served as a Designer/Architect. Most recently, he was at ARCHETYPE DESIGN, LLC as a Project Architect. Michael Hodge received his Master of Architecture from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006. Michael also holds a Bachelor of Art and Design from the same institution. Prior to that, he studied architecture and planning at Howard University.

Since transitioning to emeritus status in 2012, Paul Horowitz has been devoting most of his efforts to completion of the 3rd edition of The Art of Electronics (co-author Winfield Hill) and its follow-ons. 2015 saw its publication, and it has now sold some 100 tons of hardcover copies. Horowitz and Hill are now hard at work on its advanced-topic sequel. In the research arena, following on their group's microwave and optical SETIs at Oak Ridge Observatory, Horowitz et al. are building an all-sky optical SETI with colleagues at UCSD and UCB; it exploits the new technology of silicon photomultipliers, mounting some 200 thousand of them behind a few hundred Fresnel lenses, at a pair of widely separated domes in California. Horowitz’s laboratory home is in the Electronic Instrument Design Lab, which enjoys high activity nearly two decades after its founding. He’s continued his involvement with technical aspects of national security.

Rob Otani is widely regarded as one of the industry’s leading experts in automation and computational modeling. He established and oversees Thornton Tomasetti’s CORE studio, which focuses on applications development, advanced computational modeling and research and development. Rob is also part of the leadership team that oversees the firm-wide research and development program, CORE Lab, and serves as an advisor to Thornton Tomasetti’s innovation accelerator, TTWiiN. During his career, Rob has been responsible for the design and management of more than $2 billion of infrastructure, commercial, cultural and residential structures and infrastructure projects. He is highly proficient in seismic, wind, dynamic and thermal analysis, and has extensive experience detailing architecturally exposed structural steel and concrete structures. He manages and engineers many of the firm’s special structures projects, including those involving innovative materials and delivery methods.