Bartlett Russell

Dr. Bartlett Russell became the director of the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) in January 2025. She served as DSO’s deputy director from August 2022-January 2025 and joined DARPA as a program manager in April 2019.

Her career has included industry and government roles in research and development (R&D), during which she has conducted research and led teams of engineers and scientists to create new capabilities for defense applications. Many of her scientific contributions have been within the human domain including aiding and understanding human cognitive processes to enable the decision-maker, advancing methods to overcome limitations in social science modeling to improve analytics and interventions, and developing autonomous and AI-enabled systems that extend and enable human adaptability and ingenuity.

This included developing methods to incorporate ethical, legal, and societal implications into systems testing and design. Her academic work included field and lab research on the effect of stress on attention, memory, and other cognitive functions in student and military populations.

Before receiving her doctorate, she conducted analytical research as contract support examining the implications of biotechnological developments on military competitions for various offices in the Department of Defense, including the Office of Net Assessment.

Russell received her doctorate in neuroscience and cognitive science from the University of Maryland, College Park; her master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown University; and her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University.