Speaker Bio

Dr. James R. Schatz received his Doctorate in Mathematics from Syracuse University in 1979. His dissertation area was the theory of error-correcting codes and his advisor was H.F. Mattson. Upon graduation in 1979 he began a career at the National Security Agency (NSA) where he worked until 2009. Dr. Schatz began his career at NSA in the Cryptologic Mathematics Program (CMP), a three-year development program for newly hired mathematicians. He worked as a cryptologic mathematician throughout his career at NSA, to include a tour of duty overseas. From January 1995 – February 2006, Dr. Schatz served as Chief of the Mathematics Research Group, and in February 2006 Dr. Schatz was appointed as the Deputy Director of Research at the NSA. From 2006 to 2009 Dr. Schatz served as the Director of the Research Directorate at NSA.

Dr. Schatz received various awards during his career at NSA, including the highest honor bestowed by the NSA’s Crypto-Mathematics Institute (CMI), the CMI President’s Award, the Director’s Individual Leadership Award, the Exceptional Civilian Service Award, the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, and a very special peer award that he most treasures called the Mover and Shaker Award. He has also received the Intelligence Community Distinguished Service Medal.

In 2009 Dr. Schatz joined the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and he currently serves as the Department Head of the Research and Exploratory Development Department.