Dr. David S. Alberts is currently the Director of Research for OASD (NII) / DoD CIO. Prior to this he was the Director, Advanced Concepts, Technologies, and Information Strategies (ACTIS), Deputy Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, and the executive agent for DoD's Command and Control Research Program. This included responsibility for the Center for Advanced Concepts and Technology (ACT) and the School of Information Warfare and Strategy (SIWS) at the National Defense University. He has more than 25 years of experience developing and introducing leading edge technology into private and public sector organizations. This extensive applied experience is augmented by a distinguished academic career in computer science, operations research, and government service in senior policy and management positions.

Recent honors have included the Secretary of Defense's Outstanding Public Service Award, Aviation Week and Space Technology's Government/Military Laurel, and the inaugural NCW Award for Best Contribution to the Theory of NCW presented by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA).

Dr. Alberts chairs a NATO research group, SAS-085, which is tasked to conduct research activities to better define C2 Agility and recognize Requisite C2 Maturity for complex endeavours. Previous NATO groups he has chaired produced the NATO NEC C2 Maturity Model, the C2 Conceptual Reference Model, and the NATO Code of Best Practice for C2 Assessment. Dr. Alberts also led the effort to develop the Code of Best Practice for Experimentation.

Dr. Alberts' recent publications include the following books: Planning: Complex Endeavors, Understanding Command and Control, Power to the Edge, Information Age Transformation, Understanding Information Age Warfare, Network Centric Warfare, Unintended Consequences of Information Age Technologies, Command Arrangements for Peace Operations, and Defensive Information Warfare.

Dr. Alberts is Chairman of the Editorial Board for the International C2 Journal. He co-authored "Toward Harmonizing Command and Control with Organization and Management Theory" (Volume 3, Number 2) in 2009 and authored the article, "Agility, Focus, and Convergence: The Future of Command and Control," in the inaugural edition (Volume 1, Number 1) in 2007.

In early 2010, Dr. Alberts developed the Network Enabled Command and Control (NEC2) Short Course—a comprehensive educational campaign to remedy the lack of awareness and understanding of the nature of 21st century missions, Networked Enabled Capability (NEC), and the implications for C2 and intelligence.

Dr. Alberts' experience includes serving as a CEO for a high-technology firm specializing in the design and development of large, state-of-the-art computer systems (including expert, investigative, intelligence, information, and command and control systems) in both government and industry. He has also led organizations engaged in research and analysis of command and control system performance and related contributions to operational missions. Dr. Alberts has had policy responsibility for corporate computer and telecommunications capabilities, facilities, and experimental laboratories. His responsibilities have also included management of research aimed at enhancing the usefulness of systems, extending their productive life, and the development of improved methods for evaluating the contributions that systems make to organizational functions. Dr. Alberts frequently contributes to Government task forces and workshops on systems acquisition, command and control, and systems evaluation.

Dr. Alberts' academic career has included serving as first Director of the Computer Science Program at NYU and has held professional rank posts at NYU Graduate School of Business, CUNY, and most recently as a Research Professor at George Mason University. He has chaired numerous international and national conferences and symposia and has many publications, some of which are included in tutorials given by the IEEE and other professional societies. He has served as an officer in a number of professional societies and has actively contributed to AIAA, MORS, TIMS, AFCEA, and ORSA. At the local level, Dr. Alberts has served as Assistant to the Commissioner, NYPD. Dr. Alberts received a Doctorate in Operations Research (1968) and a Masters (1966) from the University of Pennsylvania. His undergraduate work was at City College of New York where he received a BA in Statistics in 1964.