The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is pleased to announce that Erin Fitzgerald, PhD, has joined the Institute as a Research Fellow in the Policy Research Division.  Dr. Fitzgerald supports the Basic Science Office within the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.  She works primarily to manage the Minerva Research Initiative, a university-based basic research program with the goal of improving fundamental understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral, and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the US.

Before joining the Minerva program, Dr. Fitzgerald spent two years at the Basic Science Office as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, where she developed strategic plans for future basic research investments and was instrumental in revamping DoD policies on export control and restrictive clauses on fundamental university research. Dr. Fitzgerald previously worked at the National Academies as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Graduate Policy Fellow and Associate Program Officer in the Air Force Studies Board, where she contributed to defense intelligence studies on technology forecasting.  Her internships at BBN Technologies, Microsoft, Intel, and elsewhere have given her a complementary familiarity with the industry research and development environment.

Dr. Fitzgerald received her BS in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, where she also served as Student Body President. She earned her master's degree and doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Her research in speech and language processing combined electrical engineering, computer science, and cognitive science approaches to contribute to efforts in automatic speech recognition and language translation.