News Releases

Johns Hopkins APL has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026, ranking 13 in the Security category for developing cybersecurity tools to protect industrial control systems that power essential services such as electricity, water, and transportation.

Paul Wienhold, a materials and process engineer, has received the 2025 Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering Global Fellow Award for sustained leadership in composite materials engineering. His work spans major space missions, defense systems, and hypersonic applications, advancing high-performance materials for extreme environments.

A full-scale model of Parker Solar Probe, the history-making Johns Hopkins APL-built spacecraft that has flown closer to the Sun than any other human-made object, is now on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Vernon Parks will lead a diverse portfolio of programs and initiatives focused on ensuring maritime domain situational awareness; delivering sea-based effects to deter aggressors; enhancing force survivability; and enabling effective, affordable rapid prototyping and modernization to advance Navy missions.

Integration and testing — the activities involved in assembling the Dragonfly rotorcraft lander and testing it for the rigors of launch and extreme conditions of space — is officially underway in Johns Hopkins APL clean rooms and control rooms.

APL is developing a comprehensive suite of capabilities to ensure that additively manufactured parts can perform predictably in mission-critical applications — no matter where, when, or on what machines they’re manufactured.

An interdisciplinary APL team created ATLAS, an artificial intelligence co-investigator that automates testing, learning, and synthesis for microcapsules, which has decreased human labor required per experiment by more than 80% and advances APL progress in microcapsule development and automated experimentation.

Johns Hopkins APL and GKN Aerospace are partnering to develop a system that simulates shipboard motion for metal 3D printing at sea — advancing the Navy’s ability to produce critical parts on demand. Building on APL’s success aboard the USS Bataan, this effort aims to enable motion-aware manufacturing of mission-essential components in dynamic maritime environments.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins APL, inspired by biomolecules found in cold-tolerant organisms, are developing novel materials that can control ice formation. Their breakthroughs could lead to new technologies for the U.S. military, from advanced materials for construction to medical treatments that can prevent frostbite and preserve sensitive biological samples.

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and APL have successfully demonstrated a new, lower-cost approach to national missile defense testing validating that commercially operated rockets can support rapid, affordable flight tests for missile defense programs.