2021 INCOSE Fellow, Neil Siegel has been a key figure in the development of important military, industrial and commercial innovations.
Professor in the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Neil Siegel has been honored as a 2021 Fellow by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE).
The IBM Professor of Engineering Management is one of just five new fellows announced by INCOSE for 2021. Siegel’s award was presented “for significant contributions to the methodology and practice of developing and validating large-scale, complex military systems performance.”
INCOSE awards the annual fellowships to recognize individuals who have made significant verifiable contributions to systems engineering in industry, government or academia. INCOSE Fellows include practitioners from government and industry applying knowledge and contributing to the practice of systems engineering in designing and acquiring systems, researchers developing new knowledge and advancing theory, and teachers developing the next generation of systems engineers.
Siegel has had a distinguished career at the leading edge of systems engineering, working on major military, intelligence and commercial projects, including the U.S. Blue-Force Tracker, the Army’s first unmanned aerial vehicle, as well as the Forward-Area Air Defense system.
He joined the USC faculty in 2016, after a career as a senior executive in the aerospace industry, including 18 years as a vice-president of Northrop Grumman, retiring as sector vice-president / chief technology officer at the end of 2015. Siegel’s previous positions included vice-president and division general manager of the company’s Tactical Systems Division, vice-president and director of their UK subsidiary, and sector vice-president / chief engineer.
In addition to his contributions to national security through his work for the U.S. defense department and the U.S. intelligence community, Siegel’s work has led to significant advances in consumer electronics and healthcare. Nearly every smartphone and tablet computer in existence makes use of concepts for which he is the recognized patent-holder. Most drug prescriptions in the U.S. are checked for safety through systems of a type that Siegel helped pioneer. Almost every movie screen in the country uses a secure digital distribution system for which Siegel is a cited co-inventor.
Siegel has received numerous other awards and honors, including election to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, selection as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, selection as a Fellow of the IEEE, winner of the IEEE Simon Ramo Medal for Systems Engineering and Systems Science, the iCMG award for system architecture, the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, membership in the U.S. Army’s Order of Saint Barbara, and many others.
He holds more than 40 patents worldwide.
Siegel is also the author of a recent textbook on Engineering Project Management.
All three of his degrees are from USC, including a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at USC Viterbi.
Published on June 2nd, 2021
Last updated on June 2nd, 2021
