• Ph.D. University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana – Systems and Entrepreneurial Engineering (2006)
• M.S. University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana – Business Administration (2003)
• M.A. Naval War College – National Security and Strategic Studies (1994)
• M.E. University of Virginia – Electrical Engineering (1988)
• U.S. Naval Submarine School and Nuclear Propulsion Program (1982)
• B.S. University of California, Berkeley – Engineering Physics (1981)

Dr. Harper is a Professor of Engineering at James Madison University. Before that, he was an Associate and Assistant Professor of Engineering and an Assistant Professor of Management at JMU.

Earlier in his career, he served in the U.S. Navy as a division officer, department head, and executive officer on nuclear submarines. He worked as a Naval Material Professional, a certified Department of Defense systems engineer and program manager, and an assistant professor of naval science at the University of Virginia. He also held a postdoctoral research associate position at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. 

• Primary research areas are management of technology, innovation, knowledge management and decision analysis
• Co-Principle Investigator NSF Award 0933948: IEECI Exploratory Grant: Integrating Developmental Instruction in Sustainability Contexts into an Undergraduate Engineering Design Curriculum