Slade Gardner

Dr. Slade Gardner is a technology and strategy leader for implementation of Advanced Manufacturing and Materials at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (SSC) leading the maturation and acceptance of Additive Manufacturing. His Additive Manufacturing portfolio includes large metal demonstrations, custom alloy formulations, large polymer and composite demonstrations, novel polymer composite materials and equipment development for additive clusters. Dr. Gardner is the inventor of large scale Point Wise Composition Control. He is currently focusing technical leadership and strategic planning for Lockheed Martin SSC’s Advanced Manufacturing ‘Factory of the Future’. In addition to additive manufacturing his molded thermoplastics portfolio is best known as the “APEX” family of nanocomposite thermoplastics for which he created the development strategy, staffed and lead the team for material formulation and implementations. Prior to working at Lockheed Martin SSC, Slade worked for more than a decade at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in the Skunk Works division. Slade’s additional experience includes composite manufacturing, tooling development, processing science and fabrication methods. His published research includes structure-process-property relationships of tailored interphase composites for performance and durability improvements. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Lafayette College, Easton PA and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA where he worked under a fellowship from the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for High Performance Polymers and Composites. Personal interests include traveling with his wife, all seasons of mountain sports and he is an avid motorcycle enthusiast.