Dr. Garcia served as a Program Manager in the Defense Sciences Office at the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 1998 to 2002. His programs involved the development of new types of actuation systems utilizing smart material transducers, system level demonstrations of smart structures applied to defense platforms, morphing aircraft systems and the development of exoskeletons for human performance augmentation.  Dr. Garcia has pursued interdisciplinary research in the development of novel electro-mechanical systems, including smart material based actuators for optical systems controls and piezoelectric motor development.  From 1991 to 1998, Dr. Garcia was an Assistant and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University where he was Director of the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics and the Smart Structures Laboratory.  In this capacity he directed research in the areas of smart structures, control-structure interaction, and bio-inspired robotics.  From 1991-97, he owned and operated Garman Systems, Inc., (now Dynamic Structures and Materials, LLC) a small engineering corporation that designed and fabricated devices in the areas of adaptive structural systems, utilizing piezoelectric, electrostrictive and shape memory alloy materials.  In 1995, Dr. Garcia was named an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator, appointed a 1993 Presidential Faculty Fellow by President Clinton, and twice received Summer Faculty Fellowship awards from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (’90,’91).  In 1995, he was named “Most Promising Scientist,” by Hispanic Engineer magazine (now Technica) and received this award at the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC).  His research has been supported by NSF, ARO, AFRL, NASA LaRC, NASA MSFC, ONR, NRO and industry.  Dr. Garcia is author of more than 140 articles, book chapters and edited volumes.  He serves on the ASME Aerospace Division’s Executive Committee and as on the Editorial Advisory Board to Smart Materials and Structures.  In 2002, Professor Garcia received the prestigious American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Adaptive Structures Prize for “significant contributions to the sciences and technologies associated with adaptive structures and/or materials systems.