Adam Willis

Lt. Col. Adam Willis joined DARPA in July 2023 as a program manager in the Biological Technologies Office. His research interests include biomechanics of brain injury, neuroergonomics of operational tasks, and critical care medicine.

A lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force, Willis most recently served as the Medical Director of Joint Integrated Clinical Medicine within the Office of the Chief Scientist, 59th Medical Wing. He also practiced clinically as a staff neurologist and neurointensivist at the Department of Defense’s only Level 1 trauma center, Brooke Army Medical Center. Willis is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Uniformed Services University, where also holds an appointment in the Department of Radiology. He is also an adjunct assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University. In 2022, Willis participated in the DARPA Service Chiefs Fellows Program on behalf of the US Air Force. He is a trained flight surgeon and holds the Special Experience Identifier as a physician member of the Critical Care Advanced Transport Team.

Willis is a recipient of the 2021 Air Education and Training Command Air Force Management School Outstanding Achievement in Operational Research Award and a 2022 Defense Health Agency’s Continuous Process Improvement Award. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and several book chapters, given numerous technical presentations, and mentors military officers, medical residents, and engineering graduate students in research. Willis has served as editor and reviewer for a number of academic journals as well as on government science and technology review panels.

Willis earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from the University of Notre Dame, Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in theoretical and applied mechanics degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He completed his neurological residency at San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium and a fellowship in neurocritical care at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He also a graduate of the Clinician Scientist Investigator Network at Joint Base San Antonio.