James Wiltse was born March 16, 1926 in Tannersville, New York. He received Bachelors and Master’s degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1959, he received a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in Electrical Engineering. He was commissioned as an ensign in the US Navy and after serving on active duty, he was in the active Reserves from which he retired as a Lieutenant Commander (Commander select).
Dr. Wiltse was Director of Advanced Technology for Electronic Communications, Inc. (now E-Systems, a division of Raytheon Corporation) before spending 14 years with Martin Marietta Corporation in Orlando, FL, where he held the positions of Director of Research and Technology, Director of Electrical Engineering, and Director of Research and Engineering Operations during his tenure. In 1978, he went to the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech Research Institute, where he served as Associate Director. He was also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering, advising masters’ and PhD students and initiating and teaching continuing education classes.
Dr. Wiltse has decades of experience in electronics research and engineering, and is the author or co-author of 160 articles, reports, and presentations at many national and international scientific conferences and technical symposia in the areas of antennas, radar, guidance, and countermeasures with applications relating to satellite communications and aerospace technology. He was the principal investigator on the NASA Applications Technology Satellite at higher than ordinary frequencies program. He was the task leader on the ATS-4 satellite, launched to evaluate gravity-gradient stabilization and new imaging techniques for meteorological data retrieval.
Dr. Wiltse has served as a member of various Department of Defense Advisory Committees and as a peer reviewer for proposals to the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office. He served as the General Chairman of the First National Radar Conference. He has been selected as a Fellow of the IEEE and SPIE professional organizations.