Adam Cohen

Adam Cohen serves as President and CEO of Associated Universities, Inc (AUI). AUI operates the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the Green Bank Observatory (GBO), two federally-funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) for NSF. AUI also manages cybersecurity, STEM, and distance learning programs and activities for various federal, state and private sponsors. Dr. Cohen serves as a Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Energy and National Security Program.

Prior to joining AUI in 2017, Dr. Cohen served as the Deputy Under Secretary for Science and Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), overseeing basic science, applied energy research, technology development, and deployment efforts, including the stewardship of 13 of the 17 DOE National Laboratories. His experience also includes senior leadership positions at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab and at Argonne National Laboratory. He organized and ran the National Laboratory Directors Council. He has served as head of the U.S. Delegation on the ITER Council, on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections’ Oyster Creek Nuclear Station Oversight Panel, and on the DOE Laboratory Operations Board. Earlier in his career, he was a submarine officer in the US Navy and a manufacturing engineer at Babcock & Wilcox Naval Nuclear Fuel Division.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in materials engineering from Columbia University, his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University.