Donald B. Reid was born March 29, 1941 in Washington, DC. He received the B.S. degree from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY, in 1963 as a Second Lt. in the US Air Force. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aero & Astronautical Engineering from Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA in 1965 and 1972, respectively.

From 1965 to 1969 he served in the U.S. Air Force as an Astronautical Engineer in the 6595th Aerospace Test Wing at Vandenberg AFB and participated in the testing and launch operations of military space programs.  He was a member of the technical staff at the Institute of Defense Analyses in Arlington, VA, from 1972 to 1976, where he worked on several studies one of which involved the tracking of military units.

In 1976 he got a job as a scientist with the Palo Alto Research Laboratory of Lockheed Missiles & Space Company.  In 1979 he wrote his most famous paper titled “An Algorithm for Tracking Multiple Targets” – which included the addition of a fixed lagged smoother to track targets.  This paper has been cited over 7,000 times so far.

In 1981 and 1986 Don and his family moved to West Germany where Lockheed had a contract with the Department of Defense and worked at the Bad Aibling Station for two 3-year tours – returning each time back to Lockheed in Sunnyvale.

His interests have included multiple target tracking, orbital rendezvous and station keeping, system identification, and military command and control systems.

In 2000 he and his wife Carole moved to Yorkshire, England where he worked for Lockheed at a joint US/UK base for 3 years. In 2003 he returned to work at Lockheed Martin working on the Milstar, Advanced EHF and SBIRS (space-based infrared satellite) programs.  In 2005 they returned to England for another 3-year tour in Yorkshire.

In 2012 he retired and now enjoys spending time with his family, and fellow Lockheed Martin retirees.