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Stefanie Tompkins
Stefanie Tompkins
	Tompkins in 2021
23rd Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; March 15, 2021
President	Joe Biden
Preceded by	Victoria Coleman
Personal details
Born	January 21, 1967 (age 57); South Korea
Education	Princeton University (BA); Brown University (MA, PhD)
	Scientific career
Fields	Lunar geology
Institutions	Science Applications International Corporation; DARPA;
Thesis	Central peaks of impact craters as probes of lunar crustal composition: Results from laboratory and remote spectral data (1997)
Doctoral advisor	Carle M. Pieters

Stefanie Tompkins is an American geologist. She has been the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) since 2021.^[1]

Biography

Tompkins was born on January 21, 1967, on a U.S. Army base in South Korea,^[2] where her father, a career US Army officer, was serving. Her mother is a linguist. The family spent time in Japan and Taiwan before moving to Hawaii.^[3] She attended the ʻIolani high school in Honolulu, graduating in 1983.^[4]^[5]

Tompkins graduated from Princeton University in 1987 with a degree in geology and geophysics.^[5] She then served as an Army Intelligence officer from 1987 to 1991.^[6] She returned to the study of geology this time at Brown University from 1993 to 1997 where she was awarded a master's degree and a doctorate^[1] while working under the guidance of Carle M. Pieters.

While she was studying at Brown, Tompkins also worked as an associate scientist at SETS Technology in Mililani in Hawaii from 1993 until in 1996, she became a Senior Staff Scientist at SAIC,^[5] where she studied the geology of Moon rocks, with funding from NASA.^[3]^[2]

In 2007 Tompkins joined DARPA's Strategic Technology Office as a program manager.^[7] In the next decade, according to DARPA, she held many roles at the agency, including a stint as director of the Defense Sciences Office.^[1] In 2017 she took up the temporary position of acting deputy director of DARPA.^[8]

In February 2018, she left DARPA to become vice president for research and technology transfer at Colorado School of Mines, spending three years there.^[9]^[10] Regarding her decision to leave DARPA for Mines, Tompkins told an interviewer:^[11]

I spent my career in a combination of national service and science and technology development. I was in the military. I have worked for the federal government. I have worked in industry doing science and technology. When you're in the intersection of these spaces, you start to develop an idea of what is important to you and what is needed to solve hard problems.

According to Tompkins, her time at Mines was a valuable preparation for understanding "critical mineral supply chains" and the role of academia "in the national security ecosystem".^[12]

DARPA leadership

In 2016, Tompkins described to Michigan State University faculty DARPA's mission: "to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security" in order to prevent, or to create, "strategic surprise".^[13]

Tompkins was on the list of President Biden's first political appointees to Pentagon positions, released January 19, 2021.^[14] Air Force Magazine noted that this would be the "third recent shuffle" of DARPA leadership. Former director Victoria Coleman resigned the directorship the day after, having served for only four months in the position. The position of DARPA director does not require Senate confirmation.^[6]

On March 15, 2021, Tompkins became DARPA's 23rd director.^[15]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Stefanie Tompkins Appointed 23rd DARPA Director". DARPA News. March 15, 2021. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
^ ^a ^b Tompkins, Stefanie (1997). Central peaks of impact craters as probes of lunar crustal composition: Results from laboratory and remote spectral data analysis (Ph.D. thesis). Brown University. OCLC 42258895. ProQuest 304340651.
^ ^a ^b Adee, Sally (September 15, 2010). "Profile: Out of Sight". IEEE. Retrieved April 26, 2021. Tompkins was born in South Korea (her brother was born in Tehran), and she'd already lived in Japan and Taiwan before she moved to Hawaii during her high school years. Her father was a career army officer, and her mother was a linguist
^ Iolani Bulletin "Class notes"
^ ^a ^b ^c Stefanie Tompkins, LinkedIn biography
^ ^a ^b Cohen, Rachel S (January 21, 2021). "DARPA Changing Directors Again in Third Recent Shuffle". Air Force Magazine. Retrieved April 26, 2021. The Biden administration is reportedly tapping Stefanie Tompkins to run the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, spurring the third leadership change at the secretive Pentagon organization since January 2020.
^ "Stefanie Tompkins Named DARPA Director". American Institute of Physics News. March 22, 2021. Retrieved April 26, 2021. A former Army intelligence officer with a doctorate in geology, Tompkins first joined DARPA in 2007 as a program manager in the Strategic Technology Office. She later led DARPA's Defense Sciences Office from 2014 to 2017 and was the agency's acting deputy director in 2017.
^ "Tompkins appointed new DARPA director". Homeland Preparedness News. March 17, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
^ "Stefanie Tompkins named VP for research and tech transfer". Colorado School of Mines News. November 21, 2017. Retrieved April 26, 2021. Dr. Stefanie Tompkins, who has spent the last decade in leadership and program management roles at DARPA, will oversee all research activity at Mines, serving as the public face of the university's diverse research portfolio as it pushes to expand the reach and impact of the projects it conducts for industry and government.
^ Rosenberg, Adrian (March 17, 2021). "Stefanie Tompkins Rejoins DARPA as New Director". PotomacOfficersClub.com. Retrieved April 26, 2021. Tompkins also brings academic research experience in her return to DARPA as she spent the last three years as the vice president for research and technology transfer at the Colorado School of Mines.
^ Peterman, Katharyn (2018). "Weaving the complex fabric of research" (PDF). Colorado School of Mines Alumni Magazine. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
^ Luning, Ernest (March 15, 2021). "Colorado School of Mines VP tapped as DARPA director by Biden administration". Colorado Politics. Retrieved April 26, 2021. '..my time here has helped prepare me for a number of national challenges, such as critical mineral supply chains...I also have a much deeper understanding of academia's role in the national security research ecosystem, and look forward to renewed engagement with the many universities working on DARPA programs.
^ Tompkins, Stefanie (June 1, 2016). "Engaging with DARPA". Michigan State University. Retrieved April 26, 2021. DARPA's mission is to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security, thus catalyzing the development of capabilities that give the Nation new options for preventing and creating strategic surprise.
^ Williams, Katie Bo (January 19, 2021). "Here's Who Will Be Running the Pentagon When Biden Takes Office". Defense One. Retrieved April 26, 2021. Here are the political appointees whom the incoming Biden administration has slated to fill some of top Defense Department jobs, starting Wed., Jan 20...Director, DARPA Stefanie Tompkins...
^ Erwin, Sandra (March 15, 2021). "Veteran scientist Stefanie Tompkins takes the helm at DARPA". SpaceNews.com. Retrieved April 27, 2021. Stefanie Tompkins on March 15 assumed the top post at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Tompkins is DARPA's 23rd director.