Summary
Todd Gillette currently serves as a Staff Software Engineer at Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Mission Systems as well as Director of onAir Tech, a startup building an innovative open knowledge network platform. Todd earned his PhD in Neuroscience in 2015 from George Mason University, having researched informatics and data analytics methods applied to neuronal morphology and function. He holds a BS in Engineering and BA in Computer Science from Swarthmore College.
Along with his many years working with software, Todd’s experience includes mission engineering and systems engineering, determining and documenting the key problems to be solved, deriving requirements, architecting and evaluating candidate solutions, and verifying designs and implementations. He has worked with cyber systems and software engineers to address anti-tamper and unintended emissions concerns and to integrate defensive and offensive cyber capabilities. Todd has also studied and applied artificial intelligence, including machine learning and logical ontology-based techniques. The intersections of AI and biological brains, and how to leverage them to enhance human capabilities in an ethical and human-centered manner, continue to be one of Todd’s primary interests.
OnAir Post: Todd Gillette
News
onAir Networks – November 6, 2025
Todd Gillette, onAir Tech CEO, has joined the Cyber Advisory Board.
Todd is Board Chair of onAir Networks. onAir Networks is a nonpartisan 501c3 social enterprise that provides technical and management support for focused networks like the Artificial Intelligence and United States network of 50 state hubs.
Todd is a staff software engineer at Northrop Grumman. Todd has a PhD in Neuroscience from George Mason University.
About
I studied Engineering and Computer Science at Swarthmore College, graduating in 2003, after which I moved to Virginia to work in IT (specifically knowledge managements systems) with Vivakos Inc until 2006. I then entered the Neuroscience PhD Program at George Mason University with a 2-year fellowship from Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. After the fellowship was over, I became a Graduate Research Assistant under Dr. Giorgio Ascoli at Krasnow’s Center for Neural Informatics, Neural Structures, and Neural Plasticity (CN3) of Giorgio Ascoli. I spent a semester working with Dr. Ted Dumas and helping publish a paper on gene therapy in addressing stress.
In the CN3 as a Graduate Research Assistant under Dr. Ascoli, I used my extensive experience in software development, data management, statistics, data visualization, and bioinformatics. My dissertation research involved bioinformatic pattern searching applied to neuronal morphology, with further interests regarding neuronal networks and their specific information processing roles and capabilities, as well as science policy and educational outreach.
Research
My work centered on neuronal morphology, with a focus in data mining and pattern analysis to determine distinct topological features (i.e. branching patterns) of various neuronal types. Some of my non open access articles can be requested and automatically delivered via my lab’s publications page.
Education
- PhD Neuroscience
George Mason University
2015 - BS Engineering and Computer Science
Swarthmore College
1999 to 2003
Work Experience
- Board Chair
Democracy onAir
2019 to present - Software Engineer
OnAir Networks
2014 to 2018 - Sr. Principal Software Engineer
Northrop Grumman Corporation
2019 to present - Principal Systems Engineer / Future Technical Leader
Northrop Grumman Corporation
2016 to 2019
Patents
Organizations
- International Council on Systems Engineering (2017 – present)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (2019 – present)
- Society for Neuroscience (2007 – 2017)
- GMU Graduate and Professional Student Association (GAPSA) delegate for Neuroscience (2009 – 2012)
- Neuroscience Graduate Student Organization – president (2010 – 2011)
Democracy onAir
My long-term goal for Democracy onAir to bring people into the political process by making it easier for them to find information that is directly relevant …then help them to realize how powerful they can be in terms of what happens in their community and states. We want to create an environment where people can discuss without misinformation and disinformation, to engender trust in Democracy onAir and each other. We will promote the posts, people, and comments that build bridges and understanding even while people disagree on the issues and policies.
Web Links
Videos
Todd Gillette (onAir Board Chair) Interview
November 10, 2020 (05:00)
By: Virginia onAir hub
Shuaib Ahmed interviews Todd Gillette. Todd is onAir Networks Chair.
onAir Networks Activities
Posts Authoring
Publications
Topological characterization of neuronal arbor morphology via sequence representation: I – Motif analysis
By: Gillette TA, Ascoli GA
BMC Bioinformatics, 16
Topological characterization of neuronal arbor morphology via sequence representation: II – Global alignment.
By: Gillette TA, Hosseini P, Ascoli GA
BMC Bioinformatics, 16
Statistical analysis and data mining of digital reconstructions of dendritic morphologies
By: Polavaram S, Gillette TA, Parekh R, Ascoli GA
Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, 8(138):138
The DIADEM Metric: Comparing multiple reconstructions of the same neuron
By: Gillette TA, Brown KM, Ascoli GA.
Neuroinformatics
Measuring and Modeling Morphology: How Dendrites Take Shape
By: Gillette TA, Ascoli GA
In Le Novere N. (Ed.), “Computational Systems Neurobiology”, pp. 387-428, Springer
Anti-glucocorticoid gene therapy reverses the impairing effects of elevated corticosterone on spatial memory, hippocampal neuronal excitability, and synaptic plasticity,
By: Theodore C Dumas, Todd A Gillette, Deveroux Ferguson et al.
1712-1720. In Journal of Neuroscience 30 (5)
On Comparing Neuronal Morphologies with the Constrained Tree-edit-distance
By: Todd A Gillette, John J Grefenstette
In Neuroinformatics 7 (3).
Quantifying neuronal size: summing up trees and splitting the branch difference
By: Kerry M Brown, Todd A Gillette, Giorgio A Ascoli
485-493. In Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology 19 (6)
Projects
- Assisted technically in the art sculpture project Mental Floss, producing a virtual model and assisting with the projects underlying data
- Researched at University of Central Florida’s Center for Research in Computer Vision (in 2002 as part of an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates)
