Regina E. Dugan
American businesswoman (born 1963)
Regina E. Dugan (born March 19, 1963), is an American businesswoman, technology developer and government official. She was the first female director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where she served from July 2009 until March 2012.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Regina E. Dugan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Mar 19, 1963.1
About
Dugan began working for DARPA in 1996. Over the next 4 years, she led numerous multimillion-dollar research programs. Her most notable research project, known as the 'Dog's Nose,' involved the development of an advanced portable system that could detect the explosive content of landmines. In 1999, she was awarded 'Manager of the Year' for her work at DARPA and in 2000, she was honored with the Bronze de Fleury Medal by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. She has also received awards from the United States Secretary of Defense; specifically, the Awards for Exceptional Service and Outstanding Achievement.
Dugan left DARPA in 2000 to become a special advisor for the Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Her work included a study titled 'Quick Reaction Study on Countermine,' which was briefed to senior members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and implemented in Operation Enduring Freedom. Dugan also took positions on the Naval Research Advisory Committee, Threat Reduction Agency and Technology panel. Prior to DARPA, she founded a company called Dugan Ventures. In 2005, Dugan Ventures began a new investment, RedXDefense LLC.
After leaving DARPA in March 2012, she was appointed to an executive position at Google. There, she led and created Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) at Motorola Mobility, a subsidiary of Google. In January 2014, it was announced that Motorola Mobility would be acquired by Lenovo. Dugan and her team were retained by Google. She later moved to Facebook, joining a team called Building 8. In October 2017, she announced that she would be leaving in early 2018 to pursue other endeavors. In May 2020, she was announced as the CEO of Wellcome Leap.
From Wikipedia’s article on Regina E. Dugan, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
Early life and education
- Date not recordedCalifornia Institute of Technology mechanical engineering3
- Date not recordedVirginia Tech3
Dugan obtained her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia. In May 2013, she was inducted into the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Academy of Engineering Excellence.
Dugan was awarded a PhD by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Her thesis was titled “Axisymmetric buoyant jets in a cross flow with shear transition and mixing.”
From Wikipedia’s article on Regina E. Dugan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: businessperson, engineer.7
- Since 2016Worked at Meta Platforms4 5
- 2014 to 2016Vice president, Google4
- 2009 to 2012Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency4
- 1996 to 2000Worked at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency4
- Date not recordedDARPA Director6
Wellcome Leap
In 2020, Wellcome Trust created Wellcome Leap as an arm of the foundation and appointed Dugan as its CEO. Wellcome Leap applies the DARPA model globally, orchestrating a network of more than 1mn scientists and engineers. Its programs include stratifying depression to match patients with the right treatments and studying in utero care to cut the incidence of stillbirths by half.
In April 2016, Dugan left Google to head Facebook's 'Building 8', a research division similar to Google's ATAP group.
In October 2017, Dugan announced she would be leaving Facebook in early 2018 to focus on building and leading a new endeavor.
Read more
Dugan's advanced technology group was not a part of the Lenovo acquisition of Motorola Mobility. In February 2014, Dugan rejoined Google as Vice President of Engineering-Advanced Technology and Projects. ATAP developed Project Tango and Project Ara. In December 2018 The Register published an article alleging that her team were responsible for an attempt to patent an idea presented to them earlier by an MIT academic (Ji Qie) and that the subsequent involvement of MIT authorities forced them to back down and drop the application.
Motorola
Shortly after the Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility closed, Dugan was tasked with creating the Advanced Technology and Projects group, a skunkworks-inspired team chartered to deliver breakthrough innovations for the company. In an interview with the New York Times, Dugan described ATAP as "a small, lean, and agile group that is unafraid of failure," she said, and that it will "celebrate impatience."
While at Motorola, ATAP developed and shipped several products including the Motorola Skip—part of an authentication portfolio that is also exploring digital tattoos and pills—and the augmented reality shorts, Spotlight Stories, which were featured at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It was there that ATAP announced the development of Project Ara, a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones.
Additionally, in an effort to streamline research projects, foster greater collaboration with the university research community, Dugan and her deputy, Dr. Kaigham (Ken) Gabriel, negotiated the Multi-University Research Agreement with, initially, eight leading public and private universities.
DARPA
Experienced in counterterrorism and defense against explosive threats, Dugan first served as a DARPA program manager from 1996 to 2000. During her first DARPA tour, she directed a diverse $100 million portfolio of programs, including the Dog's Nose program, which focused on the development of an advanced, field-portable system for detecting the explosive content of land mines.
From July 2009 to March 2012, Dugan served as the 19th Director of DARPA and was the first woman to lead the Agency. As Director, she advanced strategic initiatives in the fields of cybersecurity, social media, and advanced manufacturing. She also led an active operational deployment in direct support of the war in Afghanistan for which the Agency was awarded the Joint Meritorious Unit Award.
Other work
Dugan has delivered several keynote addresses and moderated panel discussions at events as such as:
TED
All Things Digital D9 and D11 conferences
Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting
Clinton Global Initiative America's Meeting
EY Strategic Growth Forum
FORTUNE Most Powerful Women Summit
Qualcomm Uplinq
Washington Post Live
World Maker Faire
In December 2013, Dugan was appointed to the Board of Directors of Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (VAR).
From Wikipedia’s article on Regina E. Dugan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Personal life
Awards
- 2011honorary degree10
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataRegina E. Dugan on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaRegina E. Dugan on Wikipedia
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- 11WikidataGoogle, Vice president
- 12Wikimedia CommonsRegina E. Dugan photo by DARPA, Public domain