Dr. Tahllee Baynard is the vice president of the transformative Ignite organization within Lockheed Martin’s Space business area. As the leader for the innovation and rapid-development organization for Space, he is responsible for navigating our partners through the technology “valley of death”, driving game-changing research, technology acceleration, and the development of discriminating products for internal and external sales.
Tahllee has a passion for developing strong teams and working on significant technological challenges in support of customer needs. Across his nearly 20 years with Lockheed Martin, he has held roles of increasing responsibility including as portfolio and program manager for significant space programs, chief scientist, business development specialist, and research scientist. Most recently, he served as a vice president within the National Security Space organization where he led a portfolio providing end-to-end capabilities to our customers, in alignment with Lockheed Martin's 21st Century Security.
A few of Dr. Baynard’s notable achievements include holding a patent in LIDAR technology, developing cavity-ring down and photo acoustic technologies for ultra-high sensitivity measurements to correlate atmospheric chemistry and climate models with airborne measurements and holding the unofficial world record for trapping photons inside an optical cavity. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin, his work as a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) studying the chemistry and radiative properties of aerosols supported climate change campaigns spanning over a half dozen states.
Tahllee received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago and his bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and history from Cornell College, in Mount Vernon, Iowa. In 2012, Tahllee was selected as Scientist of the Year, by Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) and the Young Alumni Achievement Award from Cornell.
Additionally, he is a First Robotics Competition (FRC) mentor in the San Francisco Bay Area and an active member at his local maker space where he can continue to get his hands dirty.
Special Positions: Space Studies Board of the National Academies of Engineering, Lockheed Martin Coherent Technologies (President), AIAA SciTech 2026 Guiding Coalition, Lockheed Martin Political Action Committee (Space Rep), Technology Leadership & Strategy Initiative Board of Trustees for Cornell College.
