Dr. Nadya T. Bliss is the executive director of the Global Security Initiative (GSI) at Arizona State University (ASU). In this capacity, she leads a pan-university organization advancing research, education and other programming in support of national and global security.
Bliss is an experienced leader of science and technology organizations with over two decades of experience in the defense, security and higher education sectors. She has demonstrated expertise in leading and growing mission-focused research organizations, strategic planning and organizational design. She has an in-depth knowledge of the technology transition pipeline, as well as significant experience identifying advanced research capabilities to address mission and application needs.
She has more than 80 publications to her credit, holds two patents, and is a sought-after invited speaker around topics related to technology development and national security. She has appeared on PBS and NPR, and in the Christian Science Monitor, Phoenix Business Journal and CIO Review.
GSI serves as ASU’s main interface with the DoD, the Intelligence Community (IC) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). GSI is home to the Center for Cybersecurity and Trusted Foundations, the Center for Human, Artificial Intelligence and Robot Teaming, a DHS Center of Excellence, and the Center on Narrative, Disinformation and Strategic Influence. GSI’s team includes approximately over 200 faculty affiliates and employees. GSI core research programs contribute approximately $30M to ASU’s annual external research expenditures.
Actively involved in service boards and national committees, Bliss currently serves as chair of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Information Science and Technology study group (DARPA ISAT), and vice-chair of the Computing Community Consortium. She also serves on the National Academies Climate Security Roundtable and the National Academies Forum on Cyber Resilience.
Prior to leading GSI, Bliss was Assistant Vice President, Research Strategy at ASU and spent a decade in various positions at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, most recently as the founding Group Leader of the Computing and Analytics Group. In that role, she oversaw all of the laboratory’s high-performance computing, along with a portfolio of programs focused on advanced analytics and computer architectures for DoD and IC mission needs.
Bliss is the recipient of the inaugural MIT Lincoln Laboratory Early Career Technical Achievement award. This recognition is bestowed annually to two recipients under the age of 35. She was selected for her work in parallel computing, computer architectures and graph processing algorithms, and for her exceptional leadership in anomaly detection in graph-based data. She is also the recipient of the R&D100 award for her work on PVTOL: Parallel Vector Tile Optimizing Library.
Bliss holds a Professor of Practice appointment (and is a member of Graduate Faculty) in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence and is a Senior Global Futures Scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Computer Science from Cornell University, and earned her doctorate in Applied Mathematics for the Life and Social Sciences (Complex Adaptive Systems Science) from Arizona State University.