Profile

John Vickers serves as the inaugural director of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Digital Twin Core Facility. A retired NASA senior executive with a distinguished career in technical leadership, he served at NASA Headquarters as the principal technologist and the highest-ranking technical expert for agency-wide advanced manufacturing capabilities. At the Marshall Space Flight Center, his leadership roles included more than 20 years as the associate director of the Materials and Processes Laboratory and director of the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing. A key architect of national manufacturing policy, he represented NASA on multiple White House National Science and Technology Council subcommittees (Advanced Manufacturing, Critical Minerals, and Digital Twins R&D), served as a founding member of the Manufacturing USA initiative, and recently led the development of a Space Manufacturing Technology and STEM report for the National Space Council and the Office of the Vice President. Today, he actively supports numerous professional societies, including ASTM, SME, AIAA, and SAMPE, and contributes to National Academies committees on Digital Transformation and Advanced Manufacturing initiatives.