Daniel LeMaster, Ph.D.
Daniel LeMaster, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, HASS COE
daniel.lemaster@dot.gov
Dr. Daniel A. LeMaster is a Senior Scientist at the USDOT Highly Automated Systems Safety Center of Excellence (HASS COE). He specializes in sensors and perception, focusing on cross-modal automation safety challenges and horizon scanning for future opportunities in highly automated transportation systems.
Current and Emerging Sensor Technologies
Sensors play a central role in automated transportation, delivering the critical data and situational awareness essential for safe, efficient, and intelligent vehicle operation. Since joining USDOT, Dr. LeMaster has collaborated extensively with government, industry, and academic partners on various testing activities. Examples include the spectral characterization of robotic surrogate vehicles and lidar characterization for object detection and eye safety. He continually seeks opportunities to contribute to and learn from sensor experimentation across transportation modes, striving to enhance USDOT’s ability to review, assess, and validate automated systems.
Innovation with Generative AI
Dr. LeMaster has developed standalone AI tools and provided prompt engineering services for analyzing automated driving disengagement data, streamlining acquisition processes, optimizing grant reviews, preparing RFIs, and categorizing abstracts submitted to the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting. He has also collaborated with USDOT’s Chief AI Officer in shaping the Department’s AI governance policy and, alongside his colleagues at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, has been instrumental in the successful development and large-scale beta testing of chat.dot.gov, USDOT’s in-house chatbot.
Preparing for a Quantum Future
Dr. LeMaster is actively working with ARPA-I to prepare USDOT for a quantum-enhanced future in transportation. Their initiatives include comprehensive recommendations to integrate quantum sensing and computing into the Nation’s transportation systems. He established the quantum investment recommendations that appear in the USDOT Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Strategic Plan, a key policy document guiding whole-of-government actions and investments, and is co-author of the USDOT report, Quantum Technologies in Transportation, which outlines a vision for the sector to be ready with experimentally verified solutions that accelerate transportation safety and efficiency once the quantum tipping point is reached. Currently, he is collaborating with ARPA-I on seedling concepts for evaluating quantum PNT sensors in advanced transportation applications.
Building Capacity Across USDOT Operating Administrations
A core theme of Dr. LeMaster's work is translating sensors and perception knowledge to partners across the Office of the Secretary and the Operating Administrations. He organizes workshops, webinars, demonstrations, hands-on training, and numerous small group engagements covering AI, quantum technology, and various sensing and perception topics.
Background
Before joining HASS COE, Dr. LeMaster was the Technical Advisor for the Plans and Advanced Programs Division at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in the Sensors Directorate. In this role, he was recognized by AFRL in an Award for Meritorious Civilian Service for research planning methods that became the archetype for executing the directorate’s $900 million annual budget. Other career highlights connected to AFRL include innovations in reconnaissance imaging systems, development and deployment of optical tools for treaty inspections, and successful commercialization of his patent in polarimetric imaging.
Dr. LeMaster's contributions to science and technology have earned him awards and recognitions from the Air Force, NATO, and the international society for optics and photonics (SPIE). He is a Fellow of SPIE and the Military Sensing Symposia. Dr. LeMaster holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S. in Applied Physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a B.S.E. in Engineering Physics from Wright State University. Additionally, he is a graduate of the Air War College distance learning program. Prior to becoming an engineer, he served in the United States Army and the Army National Guard.
