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Mr. William A. Dick is Illinois Rocstar President, Chief Executive Officer, and co-founder. A mechanical engineer by education, his technical experience is largely in the arenas of composite materials, materials science, and mechanical testing, as well as the organization, establishment, and execution of large, multidisciplinary, scientific, and engineering applications for research programs.

He served as Assistant Dean for Research in the College of Engineering, Executive Director of the Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets (CSAR), and Principal Investigator and Executive Director of the Air Force Research Laboratory Midwest Structural Sciences Center, all at the University of Illinois (1987-2018). After leaving the University of Illinois, he was the Deputy Director of the Composites Manufacturing and Simulation Center at Purdue University (2018-2020). Mr. Dick earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Delaware (UD) and an MBA with Excellence from the University of Illinois. From 1979 to 1987, he was a Composites Engineer and Deputy Director of the UD NSF Center for Composite Materials Manufacturing and Science. Mr. Dick moved to UI in 1987 as Assistant Dean of Engineering for External Affairs/Research and was a key organizer of CSAR, becoming its founding Managing Director in 1997. Mr. Dick was the founder and principal in Pi-D 2020, a business partnership focusing on university-government research associations. He is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), and a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He has authored or co-authored more than 35 technical papers in the areas of simulation science, composite materials, and university-government-industry research partnerships.