Jerry Acton earned his BS in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971 and his MS in Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State University in 1973. His military service in the Navy spanned 10 years, culminating in the roles of Tactical Coordinator and Mission Commander of a P3-C submarine and surface ship surveillance aircraft.
He then worked for IBM and Lockheed Martin for 32 years in roles as a lead systems engineer and then chief system architect where he was responsible for the system architecture, design, and system performance on a variety of large complex military, government, and commercial systems. On a number of those programs, he led the insertion of state-of-the-art technology that was essential to the success of each program. In conjunction with his program specific responsibilities, he was a Senior Technical Staff Member and Independent Research and Development Director at the Owego, NY facility tasked with making Lockheed Martin a leader in systems engineering methodology and improving the pace of new technology insertion.
After retiring from Lockheed Martin, he was drawn to the challenges facing energy transition. He was puzzled by the conflicting information about the potential for natural gas fracking in NY. Using a unique approach, he demonstrated that the actual production of all 2400+ gas wells in northern PA correlated strongly to the shale thickness and depth in PA. Matching this correlation to NY shale thickness and depth maps, he provided unarguable evidence that gas drilling in New York would not be economical. He presented the results in Albany at a Senate Forum. Art Berman, a nationally recognized expert, concurred with his results. When Governor Cuomo and the DEC Commissioner announced the New York ban on gas drilling, the lack of economic benefit drove the decision.
He is now applying his time to helping New York and Massachusetts achieve their challenging emissions reduction and renewable energy goals. He has been supporting NY-Geo and HEET-MA to help them figure out how to get ground-source heat to scale. He is also working on a New York state-wide energy transition plan that meets the challenges across the electric power, transportation, and heating sectors.
