About
ES Vorm, PhD
Cognitive systems engineer, retired Navy officer, and principal of ES Vorm & Associates, LLC.
I work where advanced technology meets the people expected to use it under pressure. That vantage point comes from twenty years of service that began as an enlisted corpsman with Marines and ended in senior science and technology roles at DARPA, ONR, NRL, NAVAIR and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
I retired from the Navy in January 2026. I now lead the Enduring Atmospheric Platforms Programme for the UK’s Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA), and work with government, academic and industry teams in the United States and the United Kingdom through ES Vorm & Associates, LLC.
Active TS/SCI
Four threads
What shaped the work
Operational experience
Enlisted as a Fleet Marine Force corpsman and deployed to Iraq with Marine special operations: prolonged field care, trauma stabilization, casualty evacuation, and training Iraqi security forces. Scout sniper platoon, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines. JTAC-trained. Tactical Combat Casualty Care instructor.
Defense science & acquisition
Commissioned as a Navy Aerospace Experimental Psychologist and earned naval aviation wings. Managed ONR’s Command Decision Making portfolio, served as Deputy Director of NRL’s Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research, directed the DoD Autonomy Community of Interest portfolio for OSD, and was Senior Cognitive Systems Engineer at NAVAIR. US delegate to NATO’s Joint Capability Group on Unmanned Aircraft Systems.
Human-AI research
PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from Indiana University. My dissertation, Into the Black Box: Designing for Transparency in Artificial Intelligence, led to the Intelligent Systems Technology Acceptance Model (ISTAM). Evaluation lead for DARPA XAI and design-of-experiments lead for DARPA EDGE.
Translation
The thread through all of it: translating between the people who build technology and the people who have to bet on it. Scientists to operators, operators to program managers, research to decisions.
Education
- PhD, Human-Computer Interaction · Indiana University, 2019
- M.S., Experimental Psychology · University of North Texas, 2011
- B.S., Psychology · Indiana University, 2004
Credentials
- Active TS/SCI clearance
- Navy Aerospace Experimental Psychologist (retired)
- USAF Top Knife graduate (MQ-1 Predator / MQ-9 Reaper)
- DAU Program Management certified
CV (PDF) · ORCID · Google Scholar · LinkedIn · Publications
Let’s talk about your program.
Tell me what you’re building, testing or trying to field.