William B. Roper Jr.is an American physicist and foreign policy strategist who served as the 13th Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, overseeing procurement for the U.S. Air Force and Space Force from 2018 to 2021. Before taking office he served elsewhere within the Department of Defense as founder and director of the Strategic Capabilities Office, and prior as Ballistic Missile Defense System Architect at the Missile Defense Agency. He was also a member of the 2018 National Defense Strategy steering group. He is now a senior counselor at Pallas Advisors, a national security focused consulting group, and CEO of Volansi, a corporation specializing in delivery drones. Roper earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics from Georgia Tech and returned to earn a Master of Physics degree.