Miles Jamison
Riverside Research, an independent nonprofit focused on national security, has appointed Ralph Semmel to its board of trustees.
Semmel brings to his new role extensive experience in national security, space exploration and research and development, Riverside Research said Monday.
Ralph Semmel’s Career at Johns Hopkins APL
Semmel served as director of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory from 2010 to 2025. During his 15-year tenure, he oversaw advanced research for the Department of Defense, NASA and the intelligence community.
The director emeritus was the inaugural head of APL’s Applied Information Sciences Department. He held other roles, including business area executive of infocentric operations, assistant head of power projection systems, deputy director of the research and technology development center and supervisor of system and information sciences.
Technical and Academic Background
Semmel chaired various professional engineering graduate programs and served as a professor at Johns Hopkins University. He also held key leadership and technical positions at Wang Laboratories, MITRE and the U.S. Army.
The national security leader currently serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was previously a member of the Defense Science Board and the U.S. Strategic Command Strategic Advisory Group.
