Dr. Garcia has 20 years of industrial experience in the aerospace and defense industry. Prior to WSU, Dr. Garcia worked at Northrop Grumman as R&D lab manager at the Clearfield, Utah automated composites development lab and as a senior business development manager for the COI Ceramics in San Diego, California. He has experience in advanced manufacturing of composites working with new carbon and ceramic reinforcement fibers and developing new composite matrix materials, thermal protection systems, insulation, ceramic matrix and carbon/carbon composites. Dr. Garcia received a BS in Materials Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and a doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He now leads the Miller Advanced Research and Solutions (MARS) Center which is a development center for the advanced manufacturing of high-performance composites.