John Q. Dickmann retired from active naval service in 2003. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009. He earned an MS in Engineering Management from The Catholic University of America and a BS in Physics from the United States Naval Academy. While on active duty, his sea assignments were on fast attack and ballistic missile submarines, where he deployed to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and circumnavigated South America. He also taught electrical engineering at Naval Nuclear Power School and served on the staff of the Oceanographer of the Navy. Late in his Navy career he was involved in the start up of several new organizational initiatives aimed at responding to operational and technical challenges created by information technology and the end of the Cold War. Among these initiatives were the first assessment and war game testing the concept of Network Centric Warfare, the founding of an online discussion group aimed at understanding the broad, systemic, implications of chaos and complex systems science for naval warfare and operations and a co-founded a working group dedicated to gaining a deeper understanding of Information Age Warfare.

Upon retirement from the Navy, he became the Director of Studies and Analysis at Alidade, Incorporated. He left Alidade to pursue Ph.D. studies at MIT in the field of Engineering Systems. While at MIT he conducted case study research on the application of lean principles to technical production organizations as a member of the Lean Advancement Initiative. His Ph.D. research focused on designing flexible architectures for large-scale systems, including multi-organizational enterprises. He is currently a Principal Analyst for Sonalysts, Inc.