John P. Stopher

Senior Fellow

Dr. John Stopher is a Senior Fellow supporting PSSI’s Space Security Program. He previously served as the Principal Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for Space and was responsible to the Secretary of the Air Force for establishing a Space Force as well as governance, planning, policy, strategy, development and execution across the defense space portfolio and integration with the National Security Space Enterprise. He was also the lead for international space relations and interdepartmental and interagency matters.

Prior to joining the Air Force in 2017, Dr. Stopher was the President of 377 Omega, a national security space and intelligence community technology, policy, and programs focused consulting company. From 1998 until 2007, John served on the U.S. House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as Budget Director, Staff Director for the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, and Program Monitor for the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. John also worked at SeiCorp, TASC, and Eastman Kodak as an engineer on national space programs.

He earned his PhD in electrical engineering from the University at Buffalo. His research was sponsored by the Strategic Defense Initiative in the area of advanced pulsed power for space systems and taught courses in electromagnetic theory, probability and statistics, electric circuits, and physical electronics laboratory.