Elizabeth Cantwell

Elizabeth R. Cantwell (Betsy) is the Chief Executive Officer of Arizona State University Research Enterprise (ASURE), Arizona State University’s applied research arm. Cantwell is responsible for leading the creation, management and capture of large-scale, externally funded programs and projects that advance the university’s research enterprise. She works with her Board and ASU leadership on a portfolio of institutional level initiatives and the pursuit of new partnerships and resources to advance those initiatives, including support for applied faculty research with defense and intelligence endpoints.

Cantwell is a professor of practice in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, and an affiliate of the School for Earth and Space Exploration and the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. Her technical area of focus is human space exploration systems. She came to ASU from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where she was director for economic development. Cantwell spearheaded a progressive strategy for LLNL to accelerate innovation and enhance national economic competitiveness. She returned to LLNL in Octiober of 2010 after serving as deputy associate director for Global Security at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In her role at ORNL, she provided strategic leadership to develop business with the United States Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration, the United States Department of Defense, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Center for Radiation Detection, and many others. Prior to joining ORNL, Cantwell served as the director for the Threat Reduction Directorate Office of Strategy at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cantwell spent a decade at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she helped stand up the Homeland Security organization after 9/11. She spent several years at NASA HQ as a Program Manager for the life and microgravity sciences. 

Cantwell is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School (MBA, 2003); the University of California, Berkeley (PhD, Mechanical Engineering, 1992); and the University of Chicago (BA, Human Behavior 1976). She is a current co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, and has served as chair or member of a number of National Academies studies pertaining to aeronautics, intelligence systems and human space exploration.