Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Nix

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Nix, United States Space Force, Space Nuclear Power Lead and Advanced Space Operations Software Branch Chief (RVSX), Air Force Research Laboratory( AFRL), Colorado Springs, CO As Advanced Software Space Operations Software Branch Chief, Lieutenant Colonel Nix provides leadership and direction for over 23 personnel (10 Military, 13 Civilians) delivering cutting-edge agile software across multiple portfolios to advance spacecraft technologies and operations with oversight of a $83M annual budget across 18 technology programs. As Space Nuclear Power lead, Lt Col Nix provides technical and programmatic oversight for $133M programs advancing multiple technical areas including heat dissipation, power conversion, and nuclear power systems to include reactor design and radioisotope power systems.

Lt Col Nix graduated from the United States Air Force Academy and earned his commission in 2002. He began his career at Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT) at Laughlin AFB, TX as a student pilot. Assignments following that include at Materials Directorate and Headquarters, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where he worked on advanced ceramics, polymers, and multiple aircraft material upgrades for F-22, JSF, C-17, RQ-4, and A-10. He also was the AFRL program lead for rapid runway expansion testing, USAF Body/Vehicle Armor Subject Matter Expert, X-51 Material Insertion, and the Executive Officer for the AFRL Commander during his tenure.

Following that assignment, Lt Col Nix transferred to Vandenberg AFB, CA where he worked on the initial Minotaur IV rocket launch along with 12 additional Minotaur I/IV launches to include Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) and Hypersonic Test Vehicle (HTV) 1 and 2, along with Group and Wing staff rotations. From there, he transferred to Los Angeles AFB, CA; where he was the Requirements Chief for the Global Positioning System (GPS) enterprise, balancing 4 ACAT- I program requirement changes and leading a $255M Systems Engineering support source selection and $32M/yr FFRDC support contract. Following that assignment, he was selected as technical lead for the Multi-Int Fusion Processing System and Sentient Operations Branch Chief at the National Reconnaissance Office in the Ground Enterprise Division. There he oversaw the development and execution of $238M/year budget and lead the transformation of Intelligence Community processing to the cloud and the adoption of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to enhance the National Overhead Systems Future Ground Architecture. Later, he transferred to Kirtland AFB, NM to lead the advanced analytics division at the Air Force Inspection Agency as well as deploying to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait as the Inspector General and Chief of External Oversight for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve before transferring to his current assignment in AFRL.