Dr. Philip Cheney

From being born into a nomadic lifestyle to his ever-evolving technological innovations, Dr. Philip Cheney is a man on the move. His lifelong curiosity for how the world around us works makes him a significant contributor in his role as an interdisciplinary research scientist at Battelle, a nonprofit based in Ohio advancing science and technology in national security, health, energy and environmental industries.

Guided by a mission to perform science for the benefit of mankind, Dr. Cheney's impressive projects include a system to detect illegal opiates smuggled through the traditional mail system, sensors to help aid visibility for search and rescue operations in Antarctica and technological developments used in space expeditions – of which he takes the most pride.

"My dream as a kid and a teenager and a young adult was to be an astronaut and go to space. I think sending rockets up with our technologies on it that's exciting. That's something that's hard to not smile real big when I think about."

Though his passions have led him to establishing homebases outside of the Chickasaw Nation, Dr. Cheney credits his maternal grandmother, Tanya Colbert, with introducing him to his Chickasaw heritage. She once gifted him binders filled with family history collected through extensive genealogy research of her own.

From childhood science fairs to groundbreaking technologies both on land and in space, Dr. Philip Cheney's sense of wonder is unwavering, adding, "Not giving up that sense of wonder and that sense of passion –I think it makes life fun. It makes work fun. It makes it feel good and fulfilling. It makes it worth doing."