Jason Gaverick Matheny is an American national security expert who has served as president and CEO of the RAND Corporation since July 2022. He is recognized for his contributions to Artificial intelligence policy, biosecurity, and technology assessment, having held senior roles in the U.S. government and research institutions.
Early life and education
Matheny grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history from the University of Chicago in 1996. He later obtained an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in 2003 and a Master of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2004. During his studies, he spent six months in India evaluating the Avahan HIV-prevention project, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He received a PhD in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University, with a dissertation titled "The Economics of Pharmaceutical Development: Costs, Risks, and Incentives."
Career
Matheny joined the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) in 2009, where he managed programs on forecasting and open-source intelligence. He rose to become associate office director, office director, and eventually director of IARPA. Prior to that, he was director of research at the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, focusing on existential risks. He has also held positions at the World Bank, the Applied Physics Laboratory, the Center for Biosecurity, the Seva Foundation, and Princeton University. He co-chaired the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, which authored the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan released by the White House in October 2016.
From March 2021 to June 2022, Matheny served as a senior appointee in the Biden administration, holding roles as deputy assistant to the president for technology and national security, deputy director for national security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and coordinator for technology and national security at the White House National Security Council. In July 2022, he became president and CEO of the RAND Corporation.
Recognition
Matheny's work has been recognized by ''The New York Times'' as one of the "ideas of the year" and by ''Foreign Policy'' as one of its top 100 global thinkers. He is a member of the National Academies' Intelligence Community Studies Board and the Committee on Science and Innovation Leadership for the 21st Century, as well as the Department of Commerce Emerging Technology Technical Advisory Committee, the Department of Energy AI/ML Working Group, the AAAS Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy, the Nuclear Threat Initiative Science and Technology Advisory Group, and the Center for a New American Security Task Force on AI and National Security. He is also a non-resident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has received the Intelligence Community's Award for Individual Achievement in Science and Technology, the National Intelligence Superior Service Medal, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.