About EMPI
EMPI will continue to expand its strong position in proprietary technology for commercial and defense applications. It will develop and enlarge its capabilities and assets through funded development projects both internally and in cooperation with commercialization partners.
Management Team
Dr. Dennis Wilson – CEO & Founder
Dr. Wilson received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas in 1977. He has more than 30 years of experience in industry, government, and university research and has over 50 peer-reviewed technical publications. Dr. Wilson's expertise spans a wide range of disciplines that include: hypervelocity physics, plasma dynamics, aerothermodynamics, nanomaterial synthesis, and nanoenergetic materials. In addition he has worked on a wide variety of research topics in these areas, including explosive driven launchers, electrothermal chemical gun propulsion, neutralization of explosives, enhanced blast explosives, tunable explosives and IED defeat.
Dr. Wilson has twelve years of technology management as founder and President of Applied Sciences, Inc. and CTO and founder of Nanotechnologies, Inc. (now NovaCentrix, Corp.). He also served as Director of Special Projects at the Institute for Advanced Technology for three years. In addition, Dr. Wilson has been awarded a NASA Faculty Research Fellowship on five occasions, a DoE Research Fellowship twice, and an AFOSR Research Fellowship. Prior to founding Nanotechnologies, Inc., in 1999 he was a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin for 22 years. For the last three years he has served as a technical advisor to the President’s Council of Advisor for Science and Technology.
Dr. John Granier – Director of Research and Technology
Dr. Granier completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University specializing in reaction mechanisms of nano-thermites. Dr. Granier spent four years developing specialized handling procedures and testing fundamental properties of these sensitive reactive materials. Prior to joining EMPI, Dr. Granier spent 2 ½ years at the Center for Electromechanics at the University of Texas at Austin as a senior research scientist developing technology for a high speed pulsed power alternator. His technology focus was on novel glass and carbon fiber composite processing, testing, and computer modeling optimization for railgun systems. Dr. Granier has since been serving EMPI as the lead project engineer on a variety of industry and government reactive material programs.
Advisory Board
Dr. Denny Hamill
Dr. Hamill formerly held positions at Nanotechnologies, and then EMPI, managing the business development activities including government program activities. Denny has more than 30 years of experience in high-tech enterprises, including start-up companies as well as established organizations. Denny continues to serve as Chairman of the Board for The Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas. Denny left the 3M Company in 2000, having worked for the company since 1971. In his last position he led 3M’s Electronic Markets Center, a new market-based organization delivering over $1.5B in products from 15 different 3M divisions to the global electronic manufacturing industry. He is serving on boards and advisory boards of several other companies. Additionally, Denny holds seven U.S. patents and has authored more than 50 publications. Dr. Hamill received a B.S. and M.S. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from Boston University.
Mike Gunger
Mike Gunger received his B.S in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Florida. He has approximately 27 years experience in the design, development and production of devices used by the DoD. Mr Gunger began his career at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Eglin AFB, in the Computational Mechanics Branch. In that position, he supported development of the HULL and EPIC hydrocodes. He later joined OTI, a small company, whose primary mission was the support of the DoD and DoE in the areas of weapon analysis and design. His research focus for most of that time was the development of models and numerical methods required to solve high rate loading problems associated with detonation, fragmentation and hypervelocity impact events. He has been very active in the Hard and Deeply Buried Target (HDBT) defeat community. He was the principal designer of the BLU-122 and the warhead technical lead for the MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator) warhead. Mr Gunger has supported AFRL in the area of Agent Defeat through the initial design work on PAW (Passive Attack Weapon), HARDSTOP and numerical simulation of the effect of HTI (High Temperature Incendiary) on Chemical and biological weapons. Mr Gunger has been active in the Warhead and Ballistic communities having served as Chairman of the 2004 and 2010 Classified Ballistics Symposium. Mr Gunger is the president of Gunger Engineering, LLC, a design and consulting firm for the DoD community.