Dr. Weidong Song is the Sr. Principal Technologist and Sr. Technical Fellow for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing at Blue Origin, leading an R&D team to develop technologies for all business units within the company. He is an internationally recognized and prolific innovator with more than 70 invention disclosures and patents in the areas of aerospace materials and manufacturing technologies. Before his current career with Blue, Weidong spent 18 years with the Boeing Company, starting from a college new hire mechanical design engineer in 2001 to being recognized as a Technical Fellow in 2018.

Weidong has authored more than a dozen papers in the field of space propulsion, aerospace materials, and nanotechnology. He has also served as a guest editor and referee for world- renowned scientific journals. In 2014, he co-chaired the European Union–United States Frontiers of Engineering Symposium.

Honoring his outstanding contributions to advancing aerospace technologies, Weidong was recognized with the 2012 Boeing Commercial Airplanes Engineer of the Year award. He was also selected as Outstanding Young Engineer by the National Academy of Engineering at the 2013 Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. In 2014, he won the Most Promising Asian American Engineer of the Year award by the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA, followed by the Asian American Engineer of the Year award in 2018.

Weidong recognizes diversity as a strength in engineering and technology. With a mindset of respect for different cultures and traditions, his leadership style is one of bridging differences. He says, “We can have a common goal, but the approaches by people of different backgrounds to achieve that goal can be very different. Being willing to communicate and sometimes compromise is key to working successfully in a large team.”

Weidong is actively involved in the After-School STEM Academy, promoting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in elementary schools in the Washington Puget Sound area. He also serves as an advisory board member for the Advanced Composite Center at the University of Washington.

Weidong is married with two children. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, sailing, and connecting to nature and people through traveling.