David M. Hiemstra received his B. Eng. & Mgt. (1984) and M. Eng. (1993) degrees in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering, respectively from McMaster University. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE. David joined MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates (MDA), formally Spar Aerospace, in 1984, where he is a Senior Staff Engineer. He is involved in radiation effects and embedded avionics hardening for space, nuclear, and military applications. His on going area of research for the past 30 years has been radiation effects on commercial off-the-shelf microelectronics. He has designed analog integrated circuits, hybrid microcircuits and data acquistion electronics.

David is currently a technical advisor on Canadarm3 (Lunar Gateway Robotics) avionics. He was embedded avionics technical lead on EXOMARS (Custom Single Board Computer), On-Board Processing (IR&D), RCAM, OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter, Earth Video Camera, VIPER, MSL Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer, HTV Berthing Cueing System, and SRMS Display and Control Panel Redesign. He has worked on a number of other space programs including: OneWeb, MMX, DDVS, PCW, PhoenixMET, RADARSAT Constellation, Hubble Servicing Cameras, Sapphire, Cassiope, RapidEye, Orbital Express, Space Station Cameras, ISS and Space Shuttle. He designed proof of concept data acquisition and robotics electronics for the ITER fusion reactor. Early in his career he designed electronics for the shipboard infrared surveillance systems: SIRIUS and AN/SAR-8.

He is currently collaborating with the University of Saskatchewan on the study of radiation effects on GPU’s, FGPA’s and data acquisition electronics. He is also a guest lecturer on space radiation effects on embedded avionics.

David has taught space radiation effects on embedded avionics at: York University, aerospace firms, and IEEE CCECE (2016, 2018 & 2019).

He has collaborated extensively with Canadian Universities on space radiation effects. He coordinated radiation effects programs at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Waterloo, and York University.

David has been active with NSREC, serving as Member-at-Large Radiation Effects Steering Group (2000-2003), Awards Committee (2002, 2005), Devices and Integrated Circuits Session Chairman (2000), Radiation Effects Data Workshop Chairman (2006), Local Arrangements Chairman (2009), IEEE NPSS ADCOM Radiation Effects (2013-2017), Poster Session Chairman (2015) and as a reviewer on an ongoing basis. He has presented papers at every Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) since 1995. He has authored/co-authored more than 75 papers on nuclear and space radiation effects with an emphasis on field programmable gate arrays