Dr. Aisha Haynes —Vice President at Strategic Marketing Innovations 

Biography: Harsh environments are a defining feature of defense system operation, yet they are often described inconsistently across platforms and application domains. This challenge is compounded by test methods and material standards that do not fully capture the range of material behavior experienced during platform operation. This presentation uses munitions as a representative example, comparing gun-launched and rocket-launched systems that experience fundamentally different launch profiles and complex environments. These differences drive distinct material responses that cannot be described by peak values alone, highlighting the importance of time-dependent loading, multiaxial stress states, and material interface behavior. The presentation identifies gaps in current testing, modeling, and experimental infrastructure that limit the introduction of new materials, including limited access to representative launch environments and weak integration between physics-based models and experimental data. The briefing concludes by outlining opportunities for academia to advance experimental methods, multiscale modeling, and data-rich characterization to better define and bound harsh defense environments.

Abstract: Dr. Aisha Haynes, Vice President, brings more than 20 years of experience working for the Department of Defense in developing and translating emerging technologies to the field. Her expertise is in advanced materials, materials dynamics, and science and technology (S&T) strategy. Prior to joining SMI, she served as the Principal Director for the Advanced Materials Critical Technology Area in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. As Principal Director, she provided strategic oversight and leadership of DoD’s more than $1 billion portfolio for materials science and technology. She also developed and led strategies for advancing materials through AI, automation, and advanced manufacturing. Previously, Aisha held several senior roles from Senior Researcher to Senior Scientific Technical Manager (SSTM) for Materials, Producibility, Engineering Analysis, and Prototyping at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities and Development Command at Armaments Center. As SSTM, Aisha led and managed a multi-million-dollar enterprise and multi-disciplinary workforce in materials science and engineering, computational structural and fluid dynamics, and manufacturing and producibility of armaments technologies. Aisha has also taught materials science and engineering at the U.S. Army’s Armaments Graduate School at Picatinny Arsenal and was an adjunct professor for materials science at State University of New York at Stony Brook. Aisha holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.