There are few people more qualified on the subject of wireless networking and communications than Dr. Thomas Rondeau. The highly knowledgeable, innovative official is currently steering research and development work on future generation, or FutureG, technologies at the Department of Defense as a principal director. He’s been at the DOD in various capacities for nearly nine years, and his career and training are extremely deep and impressive.
Let’s get to know Dr. Rondeau ahead of his keynote speech at the 2025 5G Summit in February. This government contracting-centric event, hosted by Potomac Officers Club, will facilitate detailed and productive dialogues about 5G, FutureG and their important uses in the government and military. Don’t miss this one!
Dr. Thomas Rondeau’s Career Background
Academia
Before his work at the Pentagon, Dr. Rondeau laid a foundation of strong education and research in the academic world. He earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech and his dissertation won an award from the Council of Graduate Schools (this would not be his last distinguished honor).
He honed his radio comms interest with an almost five-year visiting researcher stint at the University of Pennsylvania studying cognitive radio and software radio, as well as doing adjunct work at the IDA Center for Communications Research in Princeton, New Jersey.
DOD
Dr. Rondeau joined the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency within the DOD in 2016. He was a program manager with oversight during his six-plus-years on a number of fascinating projects. Among them:
- Domain-Specific System on Chip, a.k.a. DSSoC — introducing novel edge and embedded processor architectures
- Data Protection in Virtual Environments, a.k.a. DPRIVE — devising methods for computing on encrypted data.
- Arrays at Commercial Timescales – Integration & Validation, a.k.a. ACT-IV — constructing software-defined arrays.
- And many more!
Dr. Rondeau’s trusted role as an informed authority on wireless networking for the DOD and the intelligence community landed him the Distinguished Public Service Medal while at DARPA.
Current Role
Appointed the principal director for FutureG in Sept. 2022, Dr. Rondeau works primarily in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. He is dedicated to demonstrating the vitality of wireless tech to the American mission and discovering new tools and benefits. He will share the latest from OUSD(R&E) at the 5G Summit and reveal projects that are on the horizon and currently underway.
“Our role in maintaining communication superiority is crucial, especially for the DoD. In the FutureG Office, we continue to build and foster relationships with our allies and partners at NATO and around the world,” Dr. Rondeau wrote in June on LinkedIn.
Open RAN
At a Las Vegas event in October, Dr. Rondeau said that wireless communications are having a big moment not just in American systems but on the global stage. Open radio access networks, dubbed ‘open RAN’ are the foundation for the government’s open centralized unit / distributed unit program, OCUDA.
“When we look at the wireless networks and how important communication is to this ability to fight wars and to be relevant to advance our capabilities and concepts, we have to be more innovative. We have to be more adaptive,” Dr. Rondeau said, noting that software-defined open RAN technologies are appearing on the battlefield in Ukraine “all the time.”
Collaboration With Partner Nations
Given the international proliferation of wireless technologies in military settings, partnering with allies on such projects is inevitable and necessary. Earlier this year, Dr. Rondeau traveled to Taiwan, where he met with commercial enterprises and the Industrial Technology Research Institute, known as ITRI, to discuss open RAN and its utility for the U.S. and the DOD.
“The site visits with companies in the Open RAN space led to a deeper understanding of how fast they are moving over there to build high-quality devices for many different applications and industrial needs,” Dr. Rondeau shared.
The trip revealed “lots of ideas and possibilities for how this tech is useful to us,” the DOD official said.
Dr. Rondeau at the 2025 5G Summit
Want to know more about Dr. Rondeau’s life’s work in wireless technology and how it has culminated in a richly productive career at the Pentagon? Attend the 2025 5G Summit on Feb. 27 and witness his opening keynote. There will be time for Q&A and plenty of one-on-one networking; Potomac Officers Club events are always a go-to destination for deal-making and idea formation. Register today to guarantee your place!
