Program Managers

Dr. Adam L. Anderson joined IARPA in December of 2023. In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Anderson focuses on scientific research that includes novel applications of machine learning and communication systems.

Prior to joining IARPA, he was a Senior Scientist supporting work at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 2021-2023 as a subject matter expert. Before joining the Intelligence Community, beginning in 2009, he served briefly as a research assistant professor at the University of South Florida and then as an assistant professor at Tennessee Tech University until 2017.

Dr. Anderson received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Brigham Young University in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego in 2008. His thesis work focused on correlation-based beamforming in multi-user, multi-antenna channels. 

Outside of IARPA, Dr. Anderson is married with eight children. Dr. Anderson is also the inventor of Deepmod and the winner of the 2014 DARPA Spectrum Challenge. He was the recipient of the 2014 Leighton E. Sissom Award for Creativity and Innovation and was recently awarded as a prize-winning finalist in the 2019 DARPA Spectrum Collaboration Challenge. Dr. Anderson was also a Google Code Jam qualifier, annually, before its final competition in 2023.

Dr. Mickey Batson joined IARPA in March 2024. In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Batson focuses on areas of scientific research that includes electromagnetics, ionosphere geophysics, ionosphere chemistry, and plasma physics. He is presently leading IARPA's efforts on the EQuAL-P program that aims to realize significant gains in the performance of electrically small antennas. 

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Batson worked as a research engineer at the NSA Laboratory for Telecommunication Sciences from 2013 to 2024. While there, he investigated electromagnetic anomalies occurring within the ionosphere and researched and supported propagation modeling efforts for low frequencies.

Dr. Batson graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School with a doctorate in electrical engineering and a master's degree in communications engineering.

Dr. Mark Becker joined IARPA in July 2022. In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Becker focuses on topics related to privacy enhancing technologies, such as anonymous communication, secure multi-party computation, and identity management. He is presently leading IARPA's efforts on the SuperTools program that aims to develop tools that will allow the design and simulation of digital superconductor electronic circuits.  

Before joining IARPA, Dr. Becker worked at Booz Allen Hamilton from 2007 to 2022 where he served as a chief scientist supporting clients in the Intelligence Community. Prior to that, he was a technical staff member at Los Alamos National Lab, the nation’s premier nuclear weapons lab.  

Dr. Becker graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2003 with a Ph.D. in mathematics.  

Dr. Becker is a former basketball player, having played in college at Arizona State University and at the professional level in various European leagues. He currently lives in Northern Virginia with his family.

Dr. William Benard joined IARPA in May 2024 as the Office Director for Collection Research. His primary research interests are: the science of design; distributed sensing; design and manufacture of complex products; additive manufacturing; and semiconductor materials, devices, and architectures. Prior to arriving at IARPA, Dr. Benard was Chief of the Photonics Electronics and Quantum Sciences Division at the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL). He has also served in a range or roles including as ARL’s Senior Campaign Scientist for Materials Research, Acting Chief of the Electro-Optics and Photonics Division, and Manager of ARL’s Specialty Electronic Materials and Sensors Cleanroom (SEMASC). His research initiatives have included working on a wide range of Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency (DARPA) programs, including inertial sensors, X-ray lithography systems, and optical switches, as well as NASA payloads, multiple genomic X-prize efforts, and radiation detectors. Dr. Benard holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, a M.Sc. in electrical engineering and applied physics from Case Western Reserve University, and a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from the University of Witwatersrand.

Dr. Brian Borak joined IARPA in August 2023. In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Borak focuses on areas of scientific/engineering research related to energy conversion, including solar energy, optics, and materials engineering. 

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Borak worked as a science and engineering consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton from 2010 to 2023, where he supported the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E). In that capacity, Dr. Borak helped identify technology opportunities, drafted new funding solicitations, and supported the management of programs and projects related to solar energy conversion, building energy efficiency, chemical engineering, and materials science. Dr. Borak also helped start up and led a science/engineering technical consulting team for the State of New York’s NYSERDA Innovation and Research office.

Dr. Borak earned his doctorate in physical organic chemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2009 where he also served as a team leader on the 2007 Solar Decathlon team. He earned a bachelor’s in chemistry with an applied mathematics concentration from Davidson College in 2004.

Dr. Cagle came to IARPA in 2019 following 13 years supporting the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-e), General Motors, and other commercial clients.

Prior to his work in energy topics, Dr. Cagle managed the chemical weapons analysis laboratory for the United Nations in Iraq, where he served as a weapons inspector for four years. He also supported research in chemical weapons and explosives detection at the Department of Homeland Security.

Dr. Cagle earned his doctorate in inorganic chemistry from Rice University, and a bachelor’s in chemistry and international politics from Roanoke College. A native of East Tennessee, Dr. Cagle now lives in Washington, DC. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, learning new languages, scuba diving, fitness, cooking, travel, music of every kind, reading science and science fiction, and spending time with his family and friends.

Ashwini Deshpande joined IARPA in January of 2022. In her current assignment as a Program Manager, Mrs. Deshpande focuses on areas of scientific research that includes computer vision, machine learning, and image processing. She is presently leading IARPA's efforts on the WRIVA  program that aims to develop algorithmic systems to create photorealistic, navigable site models using a highly limited corpus of imagery.

Prior to joining IARPA, Mrs. Deshpande worked at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency from 2014 to 2019 where she served as a Systems Integrator and Technical Advisor in the Office of Special Programs and Research Directorate and assisted with the launching and management of new programs in Analytic Automation, Image and Video Processing, and Radar.

Mrs. Deshpande graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 with a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a Master’s degree in atmospheric science in 2000.

Dr. Kimberly Ferguson-Walter joined IARPA in July 2022. In her current assignment as a Program Manager Dr. Ferguson-Walter focuses on areas of scientific research that includes cybersecurity, cyber operations, and cyber-psychology. 

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Ferguson-Walter worked at the Laboratory for Advanced Cybersecurity Research where she served as a research scientist and acted as the lead for the deception for cyber defense effort. 

Dr. Ferguson-Walter graduated from the University of California Irvine, cum laude, with a BS in information and computer science and a specialization in Artificial Intelligence. She earned her MS and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

Her research interests lie at the intersection of computer security, human behavior, and artificial intelligence.   She has organized workshops on Cyber Deception, Autonomous Cyber Operations, and Cognitive Security.  She is a founding member of the Cybersecurity Technical Group of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), and chairs a mini-track at the Hawaiian International Conference on System Science (HICSS) on Cyber Deception and Cyber-psychology for Defense. 

Dr. Cory Krause joined IARPA in February 2024 to lead scientific research on trajectory modeling and prediction. He is currently leading IARPA's efforts on the HAYSTAC program to create large-scale pattern-of-life simulations and use machine learning to both hide and seek anomalous behavior in those simulations. 

Dr. Krause joined the Intelligence Community in 2021 to develop trajectory-based platforms for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Previously, Dr. Krause managed and supported transportation programs for the Federal Highway Administration related to connected vehicle applications.

Dr. Krause graduated from the University of Maryland in 2015 with a Ph.D. in transportation engineering. His dissertation focused on mapping trip purpose and points of interests to complex paths to predict future states of large networks and individual trips.

Outside of IARPA, Dr. Krause lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, daughters, and dog. He enjoys painting, all forms of exercising/training, and spending time outdoors with family. He doesn’t enjoy playing chess but can’t stop.

Dr. Tim McKinnon joined IARPA in August of 2021. He currently manages the BETTER, HIATUS, and BENGAL programs. 

Before joining IARPA, Dr. McKinnon worked in private industry as Lead Data Scientist at Quantitative Scientific Solutions and Data Scientist at Perfecta.  He also held academic appointments at the University of Maryland, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and University of Delaware. He was also a Fulbright scholar in 2010.  

Dr. McKinnon’s professional interests include computational linguistics and natural language processing (NLP) with a focus on linguistic variation at dialect and idiolect levels. Throughout his career, Dr. McKinnon has published theoretical, descriptive and historic work on Malayic languages. Within NLP, his interests include information extraction, co-reference resolution, multilingual language models, adversarial machine learning, explainability, authorship attribution, and author privacy. 

Raised in Flagstaff, AZ, Dr. McKinnon holds a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Delaware, where his dissertation “The Morphosyntax and Morphophonology or Kerinci Word-Shape Alternations” received the Wilbur Owen Sypherd Prize for best dissertation in the humanities. He received a Bachelor’ degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 2004 with a dual major in linguistics and Polish language and literature.

Dr. Reuven Meth joined IARPA in February 2023. In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Meth focuses on areas of scientific research that include computer vision, image/video understanding, and artificial intelligence.

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Meth worked for SAIC from 2014 to 2023, providing Scientific Engineering and Technical Assistance support for the director of the IARPA Office of Analysis (2022-2023), and subject matter expertise for the IARPA DIVA (2017-2022) and Aladdin Video (2014-2017) programs. From 2010 to 2014, he was at Leidos, where he served as the associate director of the Image and Video Understanding branch of the Autonomy and Analytics division, leading state-of-the-art research and development for new and deployed computer vision systems. Earlier in his career (1998-2010), he was a key member of a computer vision startup that grew through multiple acquisitions, where he developed image and video understanding technologies for electro-optical, infrared, hyperspectral, synthetic aperture radar, and wide-area motion imagery.

Dr. Meth graduated from University of Maryland in 1998 with a doctorate and master’s degree in electrical engineering. He previously earned a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Temple University in 1990.

Dr. Stergios J. Papadakis joined IARPA in April 2024. In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Papadakis focuses on areas of research that include identity intelligence, and broad novel sensors and sensor systems. He is presently leading IARPA's efforts on the BRIAR program that aims to improve biometric identification from higher altitude and range than is currently achievable.

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Papadakis worked at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory from 2004 to 2024 where he served as a senior scientist and chief scientist, leading research and development efforts on a wide range of novel sensors and sensor systems for biometrics, electronic hardware security, radio frequency, optics and photonics, and CBRNE detection.

Dr. Papadakis holds a doctorate in electrical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, both from Princeton University.

Dr. Michael Patterson joined IARPA in March of 2021.  In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Patterson focuses on areas of scientific research that includes synthetic biology, biointelligence, biosecurity, biodosimetry, biodefense, and other bio-focused disciplines.  He is presently leading IARPA's efforts on the TEI-REX  program aiming to enable low-dose, noninvasive biodosimetry.  He also leads the B24IC targeted seedling effort to develop new methods for countering traditional bio-threats of concern while also looking towards the future where bio-focused capabilities may enable or support IC relevant capabilities. Dr. Patterson also advises four IC postdoctoral fellows. He previously managed the Proteos and Fun GCAT programs.

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Patterson worked at Quantitative Scientific Solutions from 2017 to 2021 where he served as a Technical Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) contractor supporting IARPA on the FELIX, Proteos, Fun GCAT, and MOSAIC programs along with multiple open BAA seedling and COVID BAA seedling research efforts. Prior to his time at IARPA, Dr. Patterson supported the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) as a contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton, focusing on international research engagement in Europe and the Middle East.

Dr. Patterson graduated from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 2014 with a Ph.D. in experimental biology and Master of Public Health in epidemiology. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology from Whitman College in 2008.

Dr. Sherrie Pilkington joined IARPA as a Program Manager in July of 2021.  Dr. Pilkington focuses on areas of scientific research that includes chemical and environmental sensing, aerosol science, spectroscopy, and optical diagnostics.  She is presently leading IARPA's efforts on the PICARD program that aims to develop a fieldable aerosol sensor for complex environments. She is also leading the Fun GCAT program on threat assessment of DNA sequences, and the MAEGLIN program on ultra-low power gas-phase chemical sensors. 

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Pilkington worked at the Army Research Laboratory from 2013 to 2017 where she served as a National Research Council fellow studying nonlinear optics for trace chemical detection.  

Dr. Pilkington graduated from the Ohio State University in 2013 with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry.  She earned a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Concord University in 2006. 

 Dr. Pilkington resides in Maryland and enjoys science fiction, strong coffee, and being outdoors as much as possible. 

Dr. Kristopher Reese joined IARPA as a Program Manager in 2022. Dr. Reese specializes in the applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to cybersecurity and the use of AI in understanding social and behavioral data (Computational Social Sciences). Dr. Reese’s research efforts throughout his career have largely included AI, cyber security, biometrics and computational social sciences. In his current assignment, Dr. Reese is focused on creating new-cyber-related research efforts. 

Dr. Reese earned a Master’s degree in computer science and a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of Louisville. He is also an adjunct faculty member at Hood College in Frederick, MD where he earned both his Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and Bachelor of Arts degree in saxophone performance.  

Dr. Steven Rieber joined IARPA in 2014.  In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Rieber focuses on areas of scientific research that include forecasting and rational judgment and decision-making. He has led several IARPA programs including REASON, ACE, CREATE, FOCUS, MOSIAC, and HFC. 

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Rieber worked at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Office of Analytic Integrity and Standards where he served as an analytic methodologist, introducing new methods and training to the IC’s analytic workforce. 

Dr. Rieber earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University.

Christopher Roberts joined IARPA as a Program Manager in June 2024. Mr. Roberts is passionate about bridging the gap between research and real-world applications. His primary research interests are embedded system design, electromechanical integration, technical risk management, and computed tomography (CT) X-ray. In addition, Mr. Roberts specializes in a broad range of areas including user experience/user interface design, electromagnetic metrology, environmental testing, printed circuit board fabrication, and small-scale power sources/electronics.  

Mr. Roberts earned his B.S. in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University in 2006. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, traveling, geocaching, and engineering with his wife and daughter.  

Dr. Tom Schneider joined IARPA in August 2023. In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Schneider focuses on areas of scientific research that include sensor systems, biosecurity, and chemical and biological defense. He is currently the Program Manager for the B24IC-targeted seedling effort which aims to develop new methods for countering traditional bio-threats of concern while also looking towards the future where bio-focused capabilities may enable or support Intelligence Community-relevant capabilities. 

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Schneider worked across the ODNI from 2010-2023 in offices that include the National Counterterrorism Center, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, and the National Counterproliferation and Biosecurity Center. Before working at the ODNI, Dr. Schneider spent 15 years in private industry supporting DARPA, PD TESS, and DTRA-funded research while serving as a principal investigator and senior scientist. 

Dr. Schneider graduated from the University of Wyoming with a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry and a B.S. and M.A. in chemistry from the University of South Dakota.  After his receiving his Ph.D., he spent three years as postdoc at Sandia National Laboratory in the Microsensor Research and Development Department.   

Dr. Schneider resides in Virginia with his wife, daughter, and son.  He spends much of his time watching his kids’ sporting events.    

Dr. Perry Sherouse joined IARPA in November 2023. In his current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Sherouse focuses on areas of scientific research at the intersection of technology and human systems, including topics such as social influence, behavior change, and decision-making. 

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Sherouse worked at MITRE from 2020 to 2023, where he served as lead human factors engineer supporting research for national security and civilian government agencies. From 2018-2020, he served as a science and technology policy fellow through the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Brown University, Princeton University, Oberlin College, and University of Michigan. 

Dr. Sherouse graduated from University of Michigan in 2014 with a Ph.D. in linguistic anthropology.  He also earned an M.A. in linguistic anthropology from University of Michigan and a B.A. in linguistics from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. 

He received the 2021 DHS S&T Under Secretary’s Award for Collaboration as part of the S&T Artificial Intelligence Strategy Team. 

Dr. Alexis Truitt joined IARPA in January of 2022.  In her current assignment as a Program Manager, Dr. Truitt focuses on areas of scientific research that includes astrodynamics, plasma physics, imaging science, and space situational awareness.  She is presently leading IARPA's efforts on the SINTRA program that aims to detect, track, and characterize orbital space debris that is currently difficult to track.  

Prior to joining IARPA, Dr. Truitt worked at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2022 where she served as the deputy lead and senior staff scientist for the Space Pod in the Research Directorate. Dr. Truitt also worked at NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute from 2007 to 2012, where she supported the Hubble Space Telescope and the Kepler Space Telescope missions.

Dr. Truitt graduated from University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering.  She earned a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in electrical engineering, and two Bachelor’s degrees in physics and astronomy from UMCP. 

Dr. Truitt is the recipient of the 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award and the 2017 Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Science & Technology Fellowship. She resides in the Washington D.C. area with her husband and two daughters.