Dr. David E. Lambert, a member of the scientific and professional cadre of senior executives, is the Chief Scientist, Munitions Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He serves as the principal scientific and technical adviser to the director and is the primary authority for the technical content of the directorate's science and technology portfolio. The Munitions Directorate leads the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting conventional air-launched weapon technologies for the U.S. Air Force. The directorate consists of a staff of more than 500 military, civilian and contracted professionals pursuing a wide variety of research and development efforts in energetic and explosives, fuzes, warheads, missile seekers, guidance, navigation and control, weapon airframes, assessment methodology, and the integration of these into weapon systems.

Dr. Lambert joined the Munitions Directorate in 1987 as a mechanical engineer in the Bombs and Warheads Branch.  He has fulfilled a variety of technical positions, ranging from bench level scientist, team leader, technical advisor and core technical competency leader while in AFRL/RW and its predecessor organizations (Air Force Armament Laboratory and then Wright Laboratories).  Dr. Lambert is an esteemed Fellow of AFRL (inducted 2011) for his innovative research and strong technical leadership in ordnance and weapons related sciences.  He is recognized for his visionary research in detonation physics and explosive-metal systems leading to advanced warhead concepts.  His research and wide-spread collaborations in detonation shock dynamics, non-ideal explosives and high rate material response studies has spearheaded the foundations of tomorrow’s scalable and selectable effects munitions. 

Dr. Lambert has published over 110 technical papers and proceedings in national and international journals and forums. He has an extensive experimental background in areas of fundamental characterization and advancement of detonation physics, focused energy warheads, penetration mechanics and ordnance integration.