U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has named Stanford professor William Perry joint chair of a panel that will review the Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Defense Review.

Perry is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI). He served as U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1997.

The panel Perry will help lead is set to submit a report to Congress by July that “assesses challenges the nation faces and rebalances DoD strategies, capabilities and forces to address today’s conflicts and tomorrow’s threats,” FSI said in a statement this week.

The independent panel consists of 20 members, eight of whom are selected by Congress.