The Honorable Alan Shaffer

The Hon. Alan R. Shaffer, director of Washington operations for MIT Lincoln Laboratory, has decades of experience supporting the Department of Defense acquisition and science and technology work. Previously, he served concurrent roles as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense. Shaffer is the former director of the NATO Collaboration Support Office in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France coordinating and synchronizing the Science and Technology (S&T) collaboration among NATO member and partner Nations—a network of about 5,000 scientists. Prior to his role at NATO, Shaffer served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and served two terms as the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, a position that was the Chief Technology Officer of the DoD.Before entering the federal government, Shaffer served 24 years as a commissioned officer in the United States Air Force and retired in the grade of colonel.