Andrea Belz

Biography

Andrea Belz is Research Director at the Information Sciences Institute, Director of the Center for Research in Space Technologies (CREST), and Professor of Practice at USC Viterbi, where she specializes in engineering policy and technology innovation strategy. Currently she is on the leadership team of the California Defense Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhubs (California DREAMS), funded by the Department of War as a Microelectronics Commons Hub ($140 M to date), where she serves as Director of Translational Strategy and project PI to support technologies in Electronic Warfare (EW) and 5G/6G communications.

Her background includes multiple startups (including serving on the Board of a Caltech spinoff until its successful acquisition); extensive work with Fortune 500 companies on technology development and translation; 10 years consulting to the Mission Systems Division at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and 3 years as a Senior Executive Service (SES) leader at the US National Science Foundation. Earlier she served as Vice Dean of Transformative Initiatives at USC Viterbi, where she guided the launch of CA DREAMS and CREST. Before that she served as Division Director at the US National Science Foundation, where she oversaw the agency's principal applied research activities and a $300+ M annual budget, including roughly 300 startups annually; as well as the launch of the Translational Impacts Division (formerly Industrial Innovation and Partnerships) in the new Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships. Under her leadership, NSF initiated many new topics in the principal translational research programs funding startups, including: Advanced Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Cloud and High-Performance Computing, Cybersecurity and Authentication, Human-Computer Interaction, Learning and Cognition Technologies, Mobility, and Pharmaceutical Technologies. Previously she served as the inaugural Vice Dean of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship (TIE) at USC Viterbi where she operationalized the Viterbi Venture Fund and created Innovation Node - Los Angeles (now funded as I-Corps Hub West) a regional center of excellence for the NSF I-Corps program.

Besides NSF, she has been supported by NASA, DHS, and DOW in research in engineering policy, public-private partnerships, and AI for portfolio management through the use of Artificial Intuition, with recent publications in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, IEEE Transactions in Engineering Management, and the Journal of Technology Transfer. She has held prior faculty appointments at USC Marshall, the interdisicplinary USC Iovine/Young Academy (where she was on the founding faculty), and Caltech, where she served as Visiting Professor of Engineering. Early in her career she spent ten years serving as a consulting systems engineer in the Mission Systems Division at NASA JPL, leading roadmap efforts for the Solar System Exploration Directorate in topics ranging from life detection; electronics for extreme environments; and guidance, navigation, and control systems.

She has been active in IEEE for many years, recently serving as President of the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management (TEMS) Society (2024-2025) and now as Past President. Under her leadership TEMS membership grew by 50%, the Society launched its first Distinguished Lecturer program with a number of IEEE leaders participating, and she developed the Society's first dedicated programming for Young Professionals. She was the principal architect of the new IEEE semiconductor micro-credentials in partnership with the Department of War to enable workers of all education levels to participate in domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Moreover, she has been active in the IEEE Aerospace Conference for many years, leading the initial session in "Technology Transfer and Infusion" (now "Strategic Technology Planning, Management, and Infusion") in anticipation of the interest in the New Space Economy.


She currently serves as a Senior Advisor at the Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development center for the United States Air Force. Andrea has consulted extensively to JPL, venture capital firms, and many startups and small businesses. She served well-known organizations such as Avery Dennison, BP, Caltech, HRL (formerly Hughes Research Laboratory), the National Academies, Occidental Petroleum, and UCLA. A veteran of the Los Angeles startup scene, she was the first woman to represent the Pasadena Angels on a portfolio company board, serving as a Director of Caltech laser spinoff Ondax from 2010 until its acquisition by Coherent (NASD: COHR) in 2018. She holds a PhD in experimental nuclear physics from Caltech and a BS in physics from the University of Maryland at College Park.