IARPA: Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity

Dr. Peter Highnam, IARPA Director

Dr. Peter Highnam was named IARPA Director on 30 August 2012. Dr. Highnam joined IARPA in February 2009 as the Office Director for Incisive Analysis . Prior to IARPA, he was a senior advisor in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and then in the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). From 1999 to 2003, Dr. Highnam was a DARPA program manager with programs in electronic warfare and airborne communications. Before joining DARPA, he worked for more than a decade in applied research in industry. Dr. Highnam holds a Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award and a Department of Defense Civilian Exceptional Service Award. He is a co-inventor on three patents in commercial seismic exploration and holds a doctorate in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Catherine Marsh, IARPA Deputy Director

Dr. Catherine Marsh joined IARPA as its Deputy Director in February, 2013. Dr. Marsh is a power sources expert with extensive experience leading development teams both in industry and for the government. Prior to IARPA, Dr. Marsh was the Director of Power Sources Center in the Directorate of Science and Technology at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where she led a group that provide multi-disciplinary, agile, flexible, and innovative power solutions for the Intelligence Community. While in industry, she led the team that put lithium ion technology on numerous platforms, including the MARS Rover Spirit & Opportunity. Dr. Marsh is a DNI Fellow and a member of the CIA’s Distinguished Expert Cadre. She holds B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in inorganic and analytical chemistry from Brown University.

 

Dr. Robert Neches, Director, Incisive Analysis Office (IA)

Dr. Robert Neches is Director of IARPA’s Office of Incisive Analysis. Prior to joining IARPA in March, 2013, Dr. Neches served for two years as the Director for Advanced Engineering Initiatives in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Engineering. Before rejoining the government in 2011, he was at the University of Southern California (USC) as research faculty, and a Division Director as USC’s Information Sciences Institute. From 1994-1997, Dr. Neches served as a DARPA program manager where he co-founded the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Advanced Logistics Program and managed programs in planning and decision aids, human-computer interaction, and intelligent integration of information. He came to DARPA after founding and leading the DARPA Knowledge Sharing Initiative while a researcher at USC. He holds Masters and Ph.D. degrees in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.

 

Susan Alexander, Director, Safe and Secure Operations Office (SSO)

Ms. Susan Alexander is Director of IARPA’s Office of Safe and Secure Operations. She joined IARPA in March, 2012. A career National Security Agency (NSA) senior executive, she has served in many science and technology leadership positions in Government including as Associate Deputy Director for Information Assurance Strategy and Director of the National Information Assurance Research Laboratory at NSA, Chief Technology Officer for Cyber, Information and Identity Assurance in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and senior advisor to the director of the Joint Interagency Cyber Task Force overseeing the Government's Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative (CNCI) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). After graduating from Yale, Ms. Alexander trained as a cryptanalyst and worked extensively in foreign intelligence before turning to the harder problem of information assurance. She is a recipient of the Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

 

Dr. Edward Baranoski, Director, Smart Collection Office (SC)

Dr. Edward J. Baranoski is Director of IARPA’s Office of Smart Collection. Prior to joining IARPA in August 2009, he was Director of Advanced Technology at Argon ST, a C4ISR company in Northern Virginia. From 2004 through 2008, he was a program manager in the Special Projects Office and Strategic Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where his focus was on sensing, communication and navigation in urban environments. From 1990 through 2004, he worked at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, serving on the technical staff developing space-time adaptive processing algorithms and as group leader of the Embedded Digital Systems Group and ISR Systems Group. Dr. Baranoski previously worked at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. He was also an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and has served on the IEEE Underwater Acoustics Signal Processing and Sensor Array and Multichannel (SAM) Technical Committees from 2000-2007, and was co-chair of the first IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel (SAM 2000) Signal Processing Workshop. Dr. Baranoski received his B.S. degree from Drexel University, M.S. from the George Washington University, and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, all in electrical and computer engineering. He received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service in 2008.