Melissa G. Choi
Dr. Melissa G. Choi is the director of MIT Lincoln Laboratory, a multidisciplinary federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) run by MIT for the Department of Defense. As director, she is responsible for the Laboratory's strategic direction and overall technical and administrative operations.
The Laboratory focuses on advanced technology development and system prototyping for national security needs. Laboratory-sponsored programs include work for the military services and other government agencies, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Prior to her appointment as director in 2024, Choi served as an assistant director of the Laboratory from 2019 to 2024, with oversight of five of the Laboratory’s nine technical divisions as well as its Air Force–sponsored programs. Choi served for six years on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, with a term as vice chair. She contributed strategic leadership to the expansion of the Laboratory’s civil space portfolio through the formation of a new Civil Space Systems and Technology Office. In 2023, she was appointed a member of the national Defense Science Board’s Permanent Subcommittee on Threat Reduction. In 2020, she co-led the study Preventing Discrimination and Harassment and Promoting an Inclusive Culture at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and she has maintained a longstanding commitment to mentoring and other diversity and inclusion initiatives.
She previously led the Homeland Protection and Air Traffic Control Division, which supports the nation’s security by innovating technology and architectures to help prevent terrorist attacks within the United States and to facilitate recovery from either man-made or natural disasters through sensor development, architecture studies, and prototypes for disaster response.
Before leading the Homeland Protection and Air Traffic Control Division, she was appointed an assistant head of the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and Tactical Systems Division after serving as the leader of the Active Optical Systems Group.
Choi joined Lincoln Laboratory in 1999 as a member of the technical staff in the Advanced System Concepts Group, where she focused on systems analysis for ISR and tactical applications related to surface surveillance. Her work included mission analyses at scales ranging from small team operations to theater conflicts against peer competitors, and sensor projects ranging from unattended ground sensors and small unmanned aerial vehicles to large aircraft and constellations of space-based assets. In 2006, she became an assistant leader of the group, before transitioning to become an assistant leader and then the leader of the Systems and Analysis Group, which provides technical analysis to U.S. Air Force leadership on air vehicle survivability and the potential capabilities and limitations of ISR and tactical systems. In this role, she led new analysis and test efforts focused on U.S. platform, payload, and electronic attack options.
Choi completed her undergraduate work at Ithaca College, majoring in mathematics. She received a PhD degree in applied mathematics from North Carolina State University, where she modeled radio-frequency bonding of adhesives in composites for use in the automotive industry.