Dr. Dick Rhoades

In addition to his normal assignments, Dr. Rhoades served on a number of senior-level ad-hoc groups within the Army and Department of Defense. In doing so, he played a leadership role for over a decade in the development and implementation of strategy for fundamentally restructuring and improving the Army's science and technology organizations. For example, he developed the organizational design and operating concepts used for Army Research, Development, and Engineering Centers, helped to develop the Army's response to the Defense Management Review, and helped to guide the LAB-21 study that led to the formation of the Army Research Laboratory. In 1990-1991, he led an AMC-wide team to convert AMC's Vision¬2000 downsizing concept to reality through the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) process. The BRAC-95 decision to form the Aviation and Missile Command is a direct outgrowth of that planning. He also chaired a tri-service Implementation Panel created to execute quality improvement initiatives (a "Reinvention Laboratory") for DOD laboratories. Under his leadership, this Reinvention Laboratory obtained legislation to permit significant improvements in laboratory construction, personnel management, and research contracting.

In October 1997, Dr. Rhoades became Director of the UAH Research Institute and was also appointed to the faculties of the Colleges of Engineering and Administrative Science as Professor of Engineering Management. The Research Institute has a staff of over 40 professionals and annual revenue of approximately $6 million, primarily from DOD customers. In April 2013, he stepped down to become the Research institute’s Principal Research Engineer. He served as the principal investigator on several engineering research programs and as an advisor on propulsion and systems engineering to Army and Missile defense agency project managers. Dr. Rhoades was a Research Professor of management and taught courses in the MBA program.

Dr. Rhoades published numerous articles on propulsion and management topics and held two patents on propulsion inventions. His most recent management article, “Cycle Time Reduction in Defense Acquisition” appeared in the September/October 2010 issue of Research Technology Management and was co-authored with Dr. Dan Sherman