Draper, Matthew

Dr. Matthew Draper currently serves as the Program Manager for Industrial Manufacturing for the Warfighter Investments, Resourcing, and Execution (WIRE) program at the U.S. Department of War. In this capacity, he assists the WIRE Director for Investments in utilizing broad WIRE authorities to enable a modernized Defense Industrial Base that integrates traditional technology capabilities and emerging industrial sectors to respond at-will to national security requirements. In his previous assignment in the WIRE office Matt was the Technical Director for Metallurgy and Manufacturing, leading the investment portfolio in casting, forging, and industrial metals production covering initiatives in infrastructure, workforce, automation, advance manufacturing, and alloy and process development.  

In addition, Dr. Draper the United States National Lead for The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) – Materials and Processing Technology Group; leading efforts on structural materials with our allies in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Matt is also the host of the upcoming reality television competition show Cast-in-Steel working to attract the next generation of skilled trades and engineers into a manufacturing career.  

Prior to working with the ICAM Office, Dr. Draper was the Principal for Alloy Development and Processing Technology at the Naval Surface Warfare Center – Carderock Division. Before joining government Matt was the head of Materials Development at General Dynamics Electric Boat working on design of the COLUMBIA and VIRGINIA Payload Module and preceding that a process metallurgist at Scot Forge. Dr. Draper has a BS from Northwestern University (Olson Group) and a PhD from the University of Maryland (Ankem Group); both in Materials Engineering.