Vice President for Defense Systems & Assessments Division and Strategic Management Unit

Dr. Jeffrey A. Isaacson is Vice President for Defense Systems & Assessments Division and Strategic Management Unit (DSASMU) at Sandia National Laboratories. The DSASMU is responsible for developing and integrating advanced science and technology into state-of-the art systems for the Department of Defense (DoD) and other national security agencies. Areas of focus include global and conventional strike; information/cyber operations; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; missile defense; counter-proliferation and non-proliferation technologies; and DoD transformation initiatives.

Dr. Isaacson recently joined Sandia from the RAND Corporation, where he was Vice President and Director of the Arroyo Center, the U.S. Army’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) for studies and analysis. He had returned to RAND in 2007 from Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, where he directed systems engineering and integration of the Space Based Infrared System–High. This multibillion-dollar satellite program provides the United States a next-generation capability for missile warning. Prior to joining Lockheed Martin in 2004, Isaacson served in a variety of research and management positions in nearly 13 years at RAND, including Vice President and Director of the National Defense Research Institute, the FFRDC supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and the defense agencies. As a Department of Energy graduate fellow in the 1980s, he conducted research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Isaacson is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, having served in Afghanistan as a mobilized reservist from May 2009 to April 2010. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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