2022 STEM Hero Honorees

Francisco Castañeda sets the standard for subject matter experts at the U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center and his technical support skills are unmatched. His expertise resulted in an unsurpassed 98% permit compliance rate, the highest in the Department of Defense, and well above the 86% national average. His actions have enabled critical mission realignments and force beddowns of approximately 300 aircraft, including F-35, F-22, and B-21 as well as adversarial aircraft for improved pilot training and readiness.

As the Air Force's nationally-recognized greenhouse gas expert, Mr. Castañeda has been instrumental in the development of institutional guidance and standards, reducing reportable emissions branch-wide by 19%. He’s also established innovative standardized methodologies for quantifying greenhouse gasses and climate change impacts.  In 2021, he received the prestigious General Rawlings Award for Environmental Sustainability from the U.S. Air Force.

Mr. Castañeda serves as the technical representative on the Office of the Secretary ofDefense’s Clean Air Act Services Steering Committee as well as the Greenhouse Gas Measurement Working Group. In this role, he conceived standardized Department of Defense policy and guidance on emerging regulatory requirements for climate change and greenhouse gasses. 

Raised in Texas, Mr. Castañeda earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Texas A&I University and holds graduate degrees from U.T. San Antonio and from the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base.His career in the military began as a test and evaluation engineer for the Navy before transferring to the Air Force as an environmental engineer to manage hazardous waste handling and disposal requirements at the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.