Distinguished Alumnus '16, CCBC Foundation Board Member and CCBC Board Member
CCBC honored Dr. Richard A. Scheper, a CCBC alumnus and president of Jovian Concepts, with the "Distinguished Alumnus of the Year" award at the Student Awards Banquet on May 11, 2016.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Scheper is the founder, president and CEO of Jovian Concepts Inc., which provides specialized technical support to the United States intelligence community and Department of Defense.
Scheper graduated from Calvert Hall College High School in Maryland and transferred from the Honors program at Essex Community College to earn his B.S. (magna cum laude), M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland, College Park. His area of research was in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma theory; his graduate studies focused on refining boundary conditions for MHD fluid simulations of the solar corona and terrestrial magnetosphere.
After graduating, Scheper began work as a contractor at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where he helped refine and improve the performance of programs running on supercomputers simulating global biological cycles of phytoplankton in the earth’s oceans.
From there, Scheper moved on to the Naval Research Laboratory. As a government civilian, he focused on signal processing and information theory with an emphasis on devising algorithms to detect low probability of intercept (LPI) radar signals using exotic waveforms. He also devised a general scheme to calculate the theoretical performance bounds for the non-cooperative detection of arbitrary FM signals.
Scheper then became a contractor, supporting the United States intelligence community and the Department of Defense as a systems engineer and program manager, overseeing the development of new technologies and techniques in pursuit of signals intelligence missions.
In September 2009, Scheper founded Jovian Concepts, Inc. As of 2019, Jovian Concepts had more than 70 employees in Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Colorado and Japan.
In 2014, Scheper reconnected with the CCBC Honors Program and Rae Rosenthal, Ph.D., where he volunteered as a speaker at the Honors Alumni Luncheon and in the classroom, where he shared his experiences as a business owner. Later that year, Scheper established an endowed scholarship with the CCBC Foundation to help future generations of college students achieve their academic goals.
A true servant leader, Scheper’s commitment to public service brings credit to CCBC. In addition to serving on the CCBC Foundation board since 2020, Scheper has served on the board of directors of the American Red Cross Central Maryland Chapter, the Falls Road Community Association and the Central Maryland Beekeepers Association. He has also served as an adjunct instructor at CCBC, teaching Honors physics.
“Dr. Scheper exemplifies the true meaning of being a CCBC alumnus,” said Ann-Marie Thornton, director of Development and Alumni Relations. “He is a great community leader, educator and businessperson, and he has demonstrated his commitment to the college and community.”