Dr David Lingard has worked at Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group in Edinburgh, South Australia for over 24 years. Currently he is the Group Leader Space Systems with responsibility for leading DST’s small satellite experimentation. In recent years Dr Lingard was the DST Project Manager for the successful Buccaneer Risk Mitigation small satellite mission conducted in partnership with the University of NSW Canberra. Prior to that, Dr Lingard led a team that developed a simulation (STK, Matlab) of the Buccaneer mission to better understand the requirements for the space segment.
Now Dr Lingard’s group is developing the follow-on Buccaneer Main Mission scheduled to launch in 2022. He also coordinates DST’s participation in the 11-nation Responsive Space Capabilities Memorandum of Understanding. Earlier in his career, Dr Lingard supported a number of Defence projects related to airborne surveillance and reconnaissance, including leading the assessment of the Mariner Demonstrator Medium Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in 2006. He attained a PhD in Physics from the University of Queensland in the 1990s.