Dr.Onome
Scott-Emuakpor
CEO & CTO
My child-like enthusiasm for advancing aerospace technology and my patriotic obligation to defense dominance is the crossroads where Hyphen Innovations was founded.
​
My life in science and technology is not the culmination of a childhood dream. In fact, I lacked a clear understanding of an engineer’s contribution to society until I was old enough to buy a beer. Growing up in Nigeria and England, my interests had always gravitated towards the arts; I loved creating the impossible on an open canvas. When I moved back to my birth place of Lansing, Michigan, I added a new medium for creating the impossible: basketball. My unparalleled athleticism provided me the ability to paint picturesque moments on the basketball court, and that ability captured the attention of college coaches nationwide. I accepted a basketball scholarship to play for the Wright State University Raiders in Dayton, Ohio. And at the urging of my father, I majored in a subject I knew nothing about: Mechanical
Engineering. Why? Because my father knew the classes were easy enough for me to pass while I focused on basketball.
Chapter Two of my story starts with a career ending basketball injury. “You need to figure out what a Mechanical Engineer does,” I told myself. This personal call to action led me to an internship as a Turbine Engine Structures Engineer at the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). A new passion instantly emerged. The canvas was most overwhelming; opportunities for creating the impossible—seemingly endless. I was determined to contribute to the Aerospace Industry. No obstacle would get in my way. Not even a Leukemia diagnosis, which forced me to write my Ph.D. dissertation during a stint in the Intensive Care Unit. The reward for this relentless passion has been a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), The Most Promising Scientist in Government at the STEM Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference, AFRL Early Career Award, and a few AFRL Aerospace System Directorate recognitions for advancing small-scale supersonic propulsion and turbine engine sustainment technologies.
Executing the mission of Hyphen Innovations is the Third Chapter of my journey. Like the previous chapters in my life, I will create the impossible on a canvas that will define the future of Aerospace and Defense technologies.