Jeff Isaacson *84 CHEME
Thinker, Patriot, Provocateur
CEO Emeritus, Universities Space Research Association
Jeffrey Isaacson is CEO Emeritus of Universities Space Research Association (USRA), which operates in partnership with more than 120 research universities worldwide in the areas of science, technology, workforce development and facility management. He served as USRA’s seventh president and CEO from 2014-24. In prior years, he held executive positions at Sandia National Laboratories, RAND Corporation and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. As a Department of Energy graduate fellow in the 1980s, he conducted research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Isaacson served 25 years in the U.S. Navy Reserve, retiring as captain. He is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and a former member of the Army Science Board, serving as chair in 2020. He is also a presidential appointee to the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation. Isaacson earned degrees at Columbia University, Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received his Ph.D. in physics.