Ralph D. Semmel is an American engineer and computer scientist. He became the eighth director of the

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit University Affiliated Research Center, university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated w ...

(APL) in Laurel, Maryland on July 1, 2010.
Dr. Ralph Semmel
', thedailyrecord.com

Biography

A native of

Monroe, New York Monroe is a town in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 21,387 at the 2020 census, compared to 39,912 at the 2010 census; the significant fall in census population was due to the secession of the town of Palm Tree in 2019 ...

, Semmel earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the

United States Military Academy at West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

, a Master of Science degree in systems management from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

, a Master of Science degree in computer science from

and a Ph.D. in computer science from the

University of Maryland, Baltimore County The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

Career

Prior to joining APL, Semmel held leadership and technical positions with

Wang Laboratories Wang Laboratories was a US computer company founded in 1951 by An Wang and G. Y. Chu. The company was successively headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1954–1963), Tewksbury, Massachusetts (1963–1976), and finally in Lowell, Massachusett ...

and the MITRE Corporation. He joined APL in 1986 after serving in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

.
Ralph Semmel, Director
', jhuapl.edu 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 The G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering is the engineering college of the Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. History Engineering at Johns Hopkins was originally created in 1913 as an educational p ...

’s ‘Engineering for Professionals’ program. In 2017, Semmel was named an "International Business Leader" by the

World Trade Institute The World Trade Institute (WTI) is an interdisciplinary centre at the University of Bern focused on research, education, and policy support in the areas of global economic governance, international economic law, and international economic susta ...

. On May 24, 2019 Semmel delivered the commencement speech, and received an honorary associate of arts degree, at

Howard Community College Howard Community College (HCC or Howard CC) is a public community college in Columbia, Maryland. It offers classes for credit in more than 100 programs, non-credit classes, and workforce development programs. In addition to the main campus in C ...

. The Daily Record recognized Semmel as an "Influential Marylander" in an issue released March 29, 2019 and as a top 30 "Power in Higher Education" in 2022. Under Semmel's leadership, the Lab had a wide variety of accomplishments, including the successful

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

flyby of APL-built

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research ...

, and the data modeling for the

Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland where he remained for most ...

Coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

Research Center and the successful

Double Asteroid Redirection Test Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects (NEOs). It was designed to assess how much a spacecraft impact deflects an asteroid through its transfer ...

, which was the world's first planetary defense test mission. APL was also selected multiple times as one of

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

's Best Workplaces for Innovators and as

ComputerWorld ''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is an ongoing decades old professional publication which in 2014 "went digital." Its audience is information technology (IT) and business technology professionals, and is available via a publication website ...

's Top 10 Best Places to Work in I.T.

Research

Semmel has published papers in the areas of artificial intelligence, database systems, and software engineering.
Ralph Semmel (Ph.D. CS '92) is UMBC Alumnus of Year for Engineering and IT
', umbc.edu His published works include research on a prototype query tool for the U.S. Army, automated query formation using an entity-relationship conceptual schema as well as a prototype interface that would allow better data retrieval from the

Hubble Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

. Semmel also did research on how to include context into conceptual schema, integrated reengineered databases to support data fusion, knowledge-based information access and spacecraft distributed modeling and simulation. While at the University of Maryland, Semmel's dissertation discussed automated query formulation. Semmel also served as the co-chair for the Defense Science Board's task force report on Next-Generation Unmanned Undersea Systems.

References

External links

* 21st-century American engineers University of Southern California alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Maryland, Baltimore County alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American computer scientists {{US-engineer-stub