Joseph G. Depp

January, 2006 through present

Retired. I now spend much of my time thinking about current topics in cosmology such as dark matter and dark energy. 

In 1999, I posted a paper that I wrote on the quantum damped harmonic oscillator.  While the content was correct, I realized at the time that the work was incomplete.  I recently returned to the topic to bring the subject to closure.  You can find my recent work in the updated paper, Quantum Damped Harmonic Oscillator - Updated 2024.

January, 1995 through December, 2005

Founding President and CEO of PsiStar Incorporated. Designed and built the PsiStar Merlin Laue system for the automated determination of crystal orientation in single-crystal turbine blades. The Merlin Laue system is now used by all major manufacturers of single-crystal turbine blades that are installed in commercial and military jet engines. 

In 2007 the intellectual properties and manufacturing rights for the Merlin Laue system were acquired by the Benchmark Imaging Group.  Benchmark Imaging Group continues to build and service the Merlin Laue systems. 

October, 1991 through December, 1994

Founding president and CEO of ACCURAY Inc. and system architect of the ACCURAY CyberKnife™. ACCURAY is a medical electronics company formed to bring to market a new device for radiosurgery and radiotherapy, the CyberKnife™.  The CyberKnife™ is a state-of-the-art system based on advanced technologies: a compact linear accelerator, a robotic arm, sophisticated real-time image processing, distributed and parallel processing. ACCURAY began clinical testing of the CyberKnife™ in June 1994 at Stanford University Hospital.  Accuray Inc became a publicly traded company on February 8, 2007.  As of May, 2016 more than 300 ACCURAY CyberKnife™ systems have been installed in 40 countries worldwide and have treated more than 1,000,000 patients.

January, 1989 through September, 1991

Manager of Special Programs, Advanced Decisions Systems (ADS). In this position, Dr. Depp provided in-depth technical expertise for a broad set of applications. In March 1989, he assumed the supervision of a major ADS program for the development and deployment of a situation assessment system for US ARMY EUROPE. The system was completed on time and successfully deployed to Europe for a demonstration.

In July 1989, at the request of ADS corporate management, Dr. Depp formed the ADS Research Department to provide a clear path for technology migration into ADS from the universities. One of the major technology thrusts was to increase ADS's capability in the development of software for multi-processor systems.

In late 1990 and early 1991 Dr. Depp managed a program to incorporate full-text document retrieval based on Verity's Topic™ applications programming interface into a major defense program handling multi-level secure access to classified documents.

Dr. Depp was named manager of the Planning and Systems Control Division in April, 1991. The P&C Division is the largest division within ADS. It's programs are in the areas of advanced planning systems for defense command and control, automated scheduling systems, and autonomous vehicles. Dr. Depp remained the division manager until he left ADS to form a new company, ACCURAY, in October, 1991.

September, 1986 through December, 1988

Founding manager of the Advanced Applications Division (AAD) in the Los Altos office of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The AAD focused primarily on the application of active and passive optical technology. During this period, Dr. Depp was a participant in a multi-contractor study, the Exploitation Technology Initiative, which determined the requirements for automated assistance to imagery analysts and recommended a development program to meet their requirements.

July, 1971 through August, 1986

Dr. Depp joined SRI International (then Stanford Research Institute) as a Research Physicist in July 1971. For the next five years, he served as manager of a classified field program sponsored by the Defense Nuclear Agency and under the operational control of the JCS/Joint Reconnaissance Center. In recognition of his contribution to this national program, Dr. Depp was awarded the Exceptional Public Service Medal by the Defense Nuclear Agency.

In 1976, Dr. Depp was named manager of SRI's Electro-Optics Program. During this period, the Electro-Optics Program produced the country's first operational differential absorption lidar. The transportable lidar system was built for the Electric Power Research Institute. It was used by EPRI as part of a five-year field program to measure sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere. Dr. Depp also supervised several programs to examine the vulnerability of laser-guided weapons to optical countermeasures and participated in the development of a design concept for an integrated airborne reconnaissance system.

In 1979, Dr. Depp became the founding director of SRI's Special Systems Office (SSO). For seven years, the SSO provided an interface for applying SRI technologies to the problems of intelligence collection and processing. In 1979-1980, Dr. Depp led a multi-contractor effort to produce a five-year plan for Air Staff Intelligence (AFIN). This plan began with an examination of Air Force roles and missions, developed collection requirements for these missions, assessed current and planned capability to meet the requirements, and recommended technology and system initiatives to fill shortfalls.

During the early to mid-80's, Dr. Depp supervised the design, development, and deployment of a high frequency (HF) radio system to detect atmospheric nuclear bursts. The system is still in use at several overseas locations. During the same period, Dr. Depp participated in the evaluation of the vulnerability of the B-2 Stealth bomber. He contributed to the IR signature analysis and he prepared a report on the detectability of the low probability of intercept (LPI) radar.

Military Service

Dr. Depp served as an officer in the U.S. Army from October 1969 to June 1971. During this period, he worked as a strategic intelligence analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency. He also served a tour in Vietnam as the Operations/Intelligence Officer for the 21st Signal Group. He left active duty as a captain having received honors as the Distinguished Military Graduate, the two-time recipient of the Army Commendation Medal, and the recipient of the Bronze Star.

Education

Dr. Depp received his bachelor of science degree in Physics in 1965 from Carnegie Mellon University. He continued his graduate studies at CMU receiving his master of science degree in Physics in 1966 and his doctorate in Theoretical Nuclear Physics in 1970. Dr. Depp's dissertation, 'An Angular Momentum Decomposition of the Three-Body Problem in the Brueckner Theory of Nuclear Matter,' provided the first solution of the Faddeev equations for a realistic nucleon-nucleon potential.