Mike Watson, PhD

Michael D. Watson is the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) President and the Senior Systems Engineering Director for the Leidos Defense. At Leidos, he is responsible for the application and execution of systems engineering across the Leidos Defense. He is focused on the advancement of systems engineering and the realization of more complex systems through the application of systems engineering. He previously served as INCOSE Chair of the Complex Systems Working Group and the INCOSE Systems Engineering Principles Action Team. Dr. Watson retired from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). He worked on SpaceLab, ISS, Ares I, and SLS. He led the NASA Systems Engineering Research Consortium defining advanced systems engineering approaches and basis. Dr. Watson graduated with a BSEE from the University of Kentucky in 1987. He obtained his MSE in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Optical Engineering (1996) and his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Optical Engineering (2005) from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.