Dr. Eliahu Niewood

Vice President, Air and Space Forces MITRE

Eliahu (Eli) H. Niewood is vice president, Air and Space Forces, in MITRE’s National Security Sector. Niewood sets strategy and priorities to ensure MITRE delivers technical capabilities to meet the U.S. Air Force and Space Force’s most critical mission objectives and priority efforts. These include needs in space warfighting, air operations, nuclear enterprise modernization, cyber operations, and joint lethality in contested environments. He works to ensure MITRE is leveraging the highest impact technology and capabilities from across the nation to meet Air Force and Space Force needs and that the gaps drive MITRE’s own research and development efforts. Niewood also partners with other MITRE leaders to develop solutions for cross-organizational national security needs.

He previously was vice president, Cross-cutting and Intelligence, leading MITRE’s efforts to identify national security problems that require joint and multi-agency solutions and to shape MITRE’s and the nation’s response to those problems. He also led MITRE in applying systems engineering, technology expertise, and innovation to help the intelligence and federal law enforcement communities leverage cutting-edge technology for mission success, integrate across agencies, and operate effectively in a dynamic environment.

As founder and leader of the Cross-cutting Urgent Innovation Cell, Niewood revamped the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)’s National Security Engineering Center’s analysis capabilities in ways that will provide lasting benefits across MITRE’s national security work. Niewood directed MITRE’s work in developing a new generation of command-and-control technology for the DoD. He joined MITRE in 2017, bringing rich experience in systems analysis and tactical system technologies.

Previously, Niewood was a technical adviser to the director of the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. He also served as head of the Engineering Division at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he oversaw mechanical, aerospace, and control systems engineers building space payloads and aircraft sensor systems.From 2011 to 2014, Niewood chaired the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, a Federal Advisory Committee of 50 national experts in science and technology fields. He was a member of the Defense Science Board Task Force on unexploded ordnance.

Niewood holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a certificate in Leadership for the 21st Century from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.