As the lead technical expert in the U.S. Department of Defense, Peterkin works across all DOD organizations and Military Services to implement technical standards and system architectures as well as address integration issues covering multiple war fighting domains.
From 2017 to 2022, Peterkin was the Navy’s Senior Technologist for Directed Energy, a position in the senior professional cadre of the Federal Executive Service. Prior to that, he was electric weapons program manager in the Air Warfare and Weapons Department for the Office of Naval Research.
His early activities as an engineer in the Navy focused on technologies and concepts supporting the development of high power microwave weapons, including development of multi-megavolt Marx-bank generators, high-voltage/high-rate capacitor charging power supplies, compact battery systems, and high peak power RF systems. In addition to serving on several committees and panels related to Directed Energy, Peterkin previously served as chair and technical chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) International Pulsed Power Modulator Conference, and he’s been published in more than 50 journals and conference proceedings. He also holds five patents.
He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UNL in 1986 followed by a master’s degree (1988) and a Ph.D. (1995) before serving in the Navy for nearly three decades.