Applied Energetics, Inc. announced that Dr. Stephen W. McCahon, age 63, has been appointed as Chief Science Officer (CSO), effective May 1, 2023. Dr. McCahon was an original co-founder of Applied Energetics, Inc., and in May of 2019, he returned to the company to serve as its Chief Scientist in a consulting role. Since that time, he has provided strategic direction to the Company's research and development activities in the areas of advanced optical technologies and USPL Directed Energy solutions.

Dr. McCahon has co-authored more than 50 scientific publications and has had more than 30 patents issued, patents pending, or invention disclosures in preparation for patent submission. He was a Member of the Research Staff in the Optical Physics Department at the Hughes Research Laboratory in Malibu, California from 1986 to 1996 performing basic research in the area of optical physics and non-linear optical materials. In 1996, Dr. McCahon moved to Raytheon (Hughes) Missile Systems Co, in Tucson, AZ, during which time as was significantly responsible for the successful creation and development of the Directed Energy Weapons Product Line and served as its Chief Scientist.

He left Raytheon in 2002 to co-found Applied Energetics Inc. in Tucson, AZ to develop Directed Energy Weapons for the Defense Department including very high energy and average power ultrashort pulse laser sources and Laser Guided Energy (LGE®) technologies. In April 2010, Dr. McCahon left Applied Energetics to form Applied Optical Sciences where he developed technologies related to the application of optical physics to a broad range of areas, including photonics and ultrashort pulse laser development. Dr. McCahon is a graduate of the University of Southern California (BSEE, MSEE), holds a Ph.D., Photonics, Inter-disciplinary Physics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Iowa.