In that role, he has acted as the principal assistant to the commander and the senior civilian executive responsible for managing the Air Force’s $3 billion science and technology efforts. The lab is also responsible for an additional $3 billion of externally funded research and development.
Credit: Andy Morataya
Credit: Andy Morataya
He is part of a team overseeing some 6,000 people in AFRL’s nine technology directorates, the 711th Human Performance Wing (also based at Wright-Patterson) and AFWERX.
Since the spring of 2024, he directed the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, leading the management of the Air Force’s global basic research investment.
A graduate of Cedarville and Miami universities, Geiss enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1986 and served in field artillery, communications and military police units during his service.
He also spent nine years as a defense contractor supporting research programs at Wright-Patterson.
He began his civilian career with AFRL in 2002, detailed to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he performed policy and budget review of national security science and technology programs.
“I do this job because I want to serve,” Geiss told the Dayton Daily News in a 2013 interview. “I do this job because I want to improve how the Air Force operates, and at the end of the day I want to save them money.”
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