Dr William Lyons

2023 Chancellor's Distinguished Award

Dr William Lyons is the Executive Director of the Enterprise Technology Office (ETO) of the Boeing Company. With degrees in Education and Environmental Science from JCU, Dr Lyons’ further qualifications with a PhD in Climatology and an Executive MBA supported him to work in various science and engineering roles throughout his career.

Dr Lyons is passionate about STEM and works to improve the lives of others through access to learning and opportunities to contribute to advancement in science and technology. He sits on various technical advisory boards, chairs the Boeing-CSIRO steering committee and previously served on the board of governors for the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers’ Aerospace and Electronic System’s Society for 5 years. Other notable positions include Senior Research Scientist for Australia’s Bureau of Resource Sciences, Associate Lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy, and Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma.  He is also treasurer of the Australian-American Chamber of Commerce in the Pacific northwest of the USA

Dr Lyons has been with Boeing since his recruitment in 1999 to manage the Australian Geoinformation Business unit’s resources and staff. Dr Lyons has since held progressively senior Boeing leadership positions around the world, also achieving “technical fellow” status due to his technical and scientific expertise. He was an early leader in the adoption of sustainable fuels in aerospace and, supported by CSIRO, launched the world’s first roadmap for development of sustainable aviation fuels. Over his career, across vastly different roles, he has been fortunate to have had many failures and some significant successes, good mentors and, to have been able return the favour by being a mentor to other emerging global leaders.

As the Executive Director in the ETO, Dr Lyons leads Research and Development prioritisation and planning, technical capability building and partnerships, such as with universities and small to medium enterprises. His objective is for applied innovation to advance aerospace technologies to ensure aviation continues to contribute to global prosperity with safety, with quality, and sustainably. He leads a team creating global technical capacity and capability and to date has launched many university-industry consortia and global research centres, including in Australia, Korea, Japan, Brazil and the Middle-East.