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Dr. Valerie Browning

Acting Director of Defense Research & Engineering for Research & Technology

 

Dr. Valerie Browning is currently serving as the Acting Director of Defense Research & Engineering for Research & Technology (DDR&E(RT)). In this role, she provides leadership across DoD’s S&T enterprise efforts to rapidly develop, mature and protect key technologies and ensure U.S. warfighter dominance. Prior to this role she served as the Director of DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office (DSO) where she was responsible for all aspects of management and execution for a broad portfolio of high-risk, high payoff research initiatives focused on game-changing technologies for U.S. national security.

Dr. Browning has more than 35 years of experience in managing and executing defense-related research and development. Prior to her most recent DARPA appointment in December of 2017, she worked as an independent consultant providing subject matter expertise and strategic planning support to the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and other government clients in the areas of advanced materials and alternative energy. She also served as Chief Technology Officer for HELM System Solutions, Inc., a woman-owned small research and development (R&D) business.

Dr. Browning also served as a program manager in DSO from 2000-2007, where she initiated and managed a diverse R&D portfolio in areas that included metamaterials, bio-magnetics, unmanned underwater vehicle energy storage, portable power, thermoelectric materials and others. She also worked as a research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory from 1984 to 2000 where her primary areas of research included thermoelectric materials, superconductors, magnetics, and magnetic oxide materials.

Dr. Browning earned a doctorate in physics from The Catholic University of America, a Master of Science degree in physics from the University of Maryland, and a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Virginia Tech.