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Ralph Semmel

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Ralph D. Semmel
NationalityAmerican
Scientific career
FieldsEngineering, Computer Science
InstitutionsJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Ralph D. Semmel is an American engineer and computer scientist. He became the eighth director of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland on July 1, 2010.[1] In 2024, he announced that he will step down from his role in July 2025.[2]

Biography

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A native of Monroe, New York, Semmel earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a Master of Science degree in systems management from the University of Southern California, a Master of Science degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.[3]

Career

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Prior to joining APL, Semmel held leadership and technical positions with Wang Laboratories and the MITRE Corporation.[3] He joined APL in 1986 after serving in the U.S. Army.[3]

From 1997 to 2010, Semmel served as chair of the graduate programs in Computer Science, Information Assurance, and Information Systems Engineering for Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering’s ‘Engineering for Professionals’ program.[4]

In 2017, Semmel was named an "International Business Leader" by the World Trade Institute.[5] In 2017, Semmel was a commencement speaker for the University of Maryland Baltimore and received an honorary doctorate of science degree.[6] On May 24, 2019, Semmel delivered the commencement speech, and received an honorary associate of arts degree, at Howard Community College.[7] The Daily Record recognized Semmel as an "Influential Marylander" in an issue released March 29, 2019[8] and as a top 30 "Power in Higher Education" in 2022.[9]

Under Semmel's leadership, the Lab had a wide variety of accomplishments, including the successful Pluto flyby of APL-built New Horizons,[10][11] the data modeling for the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center [12] and the successful Double Asteroid Redirection Test, which was the world's first planetary defense test mission.[13] Semmel's leadership also saw APL selected multiple times as one of Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators [14][15] and as ComputerWorld's Top 10 Best Places to Work in I.T.[16]

In July 2024, Semmel announced that he would be stepping down from his role as director of APL in 2025, after almost 40 years at the Lab. He is the second-longest-serving head of the Lab, trailing only its third director, Ralph Gibson.[2]

Research

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Semmel has published papers in the areas of artificial intelligence, database systems, and software engineering.[17] His published works include research on a prototype query tool for the U.S. Army,[18] automated query formation using an entity-relationship conceptual schema [19] as well as a prototype interface that would allow better data retrieval from the Hubble Telescope.[20] Semmel also did research on how to include context into conceptual schema,[21] integrated reengineered databases to support data fusion,[22] knowledge-based information access [23] and spacecraft distributed modeling and simulation.[24]

While at the University of Maryland, Semmel's dissertation discussed automated query formulation.[25]

Semmel also served as the co-chair for the Defense Science Board's task force report on Next-Generation Unmanned Undersea Systems.[26] He has also served on the U.S. Strategic Command Strategic Advisory Group and various panels on the National Security Agency (NSA) advisory board. He is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Dr. Ralph Semmel, thedailyrecord.com
  2. ^ a b c "Johns Hopkins Apl Director Ralph Semmel to Conclud | Newswise". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  3. ^ a b c Ralph Semmel, Director, jhuapl.edu
  4. ^ Ralph Semmel Named Next Director of APL, jhu.edu
  5. ^ "2017 Awards". Maryland International Business Leadership Awards. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  6. ^ "Honorary Degrees Awarded and Commencement Speakers". commencement.umbc.edu. Retrieved 2024-10-10.
  7. ^ "Dr. Ralph Semmel of JHU Applied Physics Laboratory to Receive Honorary Degree and Deliver Commencement Address at Howard Community College". Howard Community College. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  8. ^ "2019 Influential Marylander Winners". The Daily Record. Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  9. ^ Daily Record Staff (2022-04-29). "Introducing The Daily Record's 2022 Power 30 Higher Education | Maryland Daily Record". Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  10. ^ Achenbach, Joel (2015-07-10). "The inside story of New Horizons' 'Apollo 13' moment on its way to Pluto". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  11. ^ Ramsey, Sarah (2015-07-14). "NASA's New Horizons 'Phones Home' Safe after Pluto Flyby". NASA. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  12. ^ Amara, Kate (2020-07-06). "Howard Co. partners with Johns Hopkins APL, Quality First Urgent Care over coronavirus". WBAL. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  13. ^ "NASA officials say its asteroid defense test was a success". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-10-12.
  14. ^ Woodruff, Jay (2020-07-29). "Johns Hopkins University APL is one of Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  15. ^ "Johns Hopkins APL Included in Fast Company's Top Workplaces List for Innovators". ExecutiveBiz. 2019-08-06. Retrieved 2021-08-12.
  16. ^ staff, Marc Ambasna-Jones and Insider Pro (2021-07-12). "Best Places to Work in IT 2021". InsiderPro. Retrieved 2021-08-13.
  17. ^ Ralph Semmel (Ph.D. CS '92) is UMBC Alumnus of Year for Engineering and IT, umbc.edu
  18. ^ Blum, Bruce I.; Semmel, Ralph D. (1990-05-01). "The INA: A simple query language with only attribute names". Proceedings of the 1990 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data. SIGMOD '90. Vol. 19. Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. p. 390. doi:10.1145/93597.98750. ISBN 978-0-89791-365-2. S2CID 21512604.
  19. ^ Semmel, Ralph D.; Mayfield, James (1997-06-01). "Automated Query Formulation Using an Entity–Relationship Conceptual Schema". Journal of Intelligent Information Systems. 8 (3): 267–290. doi:10.1023/A:1008629825231. ISSN 1573-7675. S2CID 38091836.
  20. ^ Semmel, R.D; Silberberg, D.P (1993-06-01). "Extended entity-relationship model for automatic query generation". Telematics and Informatics. 10 (3): 301–317. doi:10.1016/0736-5853(93)90032-Y. ISSN 0736-5853.
  21. ^ Semmel, R. D. (1993). Finin, Timothy W.; Nicholas, Charles K.; Yesha, Yelena (eds.). "Discovering context in a conceptual schema". Information and Knowledge Management Expanding the Definition of "Database". Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 752. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer: 1–15. doi:10.1007/3-540-57419-0_1. ISBN 978-3-540-48148-5.
  22. ^ Semmel, R.D.; Winkler, R.P. (July 1995). "Integrating reengineered databases to support data fusion". Journal of Systems and Software. 30 (1–2): 127–135. doi:10.1016/0164-1212(94)00121-3. ISSN 0164-1212.
  23. ^ Karlson, Amy K.; Semmel, Ralph D.; Silberberg, David P. (2001-12-01), "Knowledge-based information access", Handbook of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, World Scientific Publishing Company, pp. 639–662, doi:10.1142/9789812389718_0026, ISBN 978-981-02-4973-1, retrieved 2021-08-12
  24. ^ Goldfinger, A.; Silberberg, D.; Gersh, J.; Hunt, J.; Weiskopf, F.; Spisz, T.; Mou, Z.G; Rogers, G.; Semmel, R. (2000-08-01). "A knowledge-based approach to spacecraft distributed modeling and simulation". Advances in Engineering Software. 31 (8–9): 669–677. doi:10.1016/S0965-9978(00)00019-3. ISSN 0965-9978.
  25. ^ Semmel, Ralph D. (1992). A knowledge-based approach to automated query formulation (phd thesis). USA: University of Maryland at Baltimore County.
  26. ^ "DSB Task Force Report on Next-Generation Unmanned Undersea Systems" (PDF). Defense Science Board. October 2016.
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