15 Facts About Neil McCasland

William Neil McCasland is an astronautical engineer, retired United States Air Force major general, and former commander of Air Force Research Laboratory.

Neil McCasland is currently the director of technology at Applied Technology Associates.

Neil McCasland's father was killed in a flying accident when he was young, and his mother eventually remarried another airman, Lieutenant William R Casey.

Neil McCasland went on to receive a full scholarship from the Hertz foundation, and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a Master's degree in aeronautical engineering estimation and controls in 1980.

Neil McCasland returned to MIT in 1985 to complete a doctorate in astronautical engineering.

Neil McCasland defended his dissertation "Sensor and Actuator Selection for Fault-Tolerant Control of Flexible Structures" in August 1988.

Neil McCasland later went on to attend the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, graduating in 1995, as well as the Advanced Program Manager's Course at the Defense Systems Management College on Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

In 2004 Neil McCasland became vice commander of the Ogden Air Logistics Center, a facility attached to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, spending a year leading operations before returning yet again to LA AFB as vice commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center.

In 2007, Neil McCasland was assigned to the Pentagon as director of space acquisition within the Office of the Under Secretary of the Air Force.

In May 2011, Neil McCasland left Washington for his final posting, assuming command of Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, a position he held until his retirement in October 2013.

Neil McCasland is currently director of technology at Applied Technology Associates, an Albuquerque, New Mexico based subsidiary of Arlington, Virginia based BlueHalo, a defense conglomerate operating in the areas of space warfare, directed energy, missile defense, cyber and C4ISR.

Since 2013 Neil McCasland has been an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

In June 2019, Neil McCasland joined the board of trustees for Riverside Research, a not-for-profit "chartered to advance scientific research for the benefit of the United States government and in the public interest".

Neil McCasland is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Early in his Air Force career Neil McCasland married San Diego native Susan Wilkerson.