Bio

Dr. William Chappell is the VP of Missions Systems within the Strategic Missions and Technology Division of Microsoft. The Strategic Missions and Technology division was set up to mature some of the ''big bets'' across Microsoft, including Quantum, 5G, and government business. Within the Mission Engineering team, he has developed the Azure Space and Spectrum team, as well as the strategic mod and simulation which includes silicon cloud design. Prior to Microsoft, he was formerly the director of the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). Serving in this position, he focused the office on three key thrusts important to national security. These thrusts included ensuring unfettered use of the electromagnetic spectrum, building an alternative business model for acquiring advanced DoD electronics that feature built-in trust, and developing circuit architectures for next-generation machine learning. MTO creates the MEMS, photonic, and electronic components needed to gracefully bridge the divide between the physical world in which we live and the digital realm where our information resides. Under Dr. Chappell’s leadership, MTO developed the basic underpinnings of computation and sensing needed for an effective, information-driven society. He created and kicked off the Electronics Resurgence Initiative, the nation’s largest investment in the foundation of electronics. Prior to his 8 year stint in government, Dr. Chappell was a professor at Purdue University specializing in electromagnetics.