Matt Daniels is the co-founder of Ultra, a privately held tech startup based in New York. Earlier, he led initiatives at the White House, Department of Defense, and NASA where his work focused on space, AI, and technology strategy for the United States.
At the White House, Matt led initiatives across space security, technology strategy, Cislunar exploration and development, planetary defense, and special projects involving defense technologies. He also spearheaded diplomacy on these matters with select countries and international organizations. At the Pentagon he was a senior advisor in the Office of Net Assessment, where his work focused on U.S. space programs and artificial intelligence at the whole-enterprise level for DoD, as well as studies on emerging issues in nuclear competition for U.S. leaders. Also at the Pentagon, as the inaugural Tech Director for AI, he oversaw and focused the Department’s AI/ML research portfolio, architected future capabilities, and engaged the research and technology organizations of U.S. allies.
In his free time Matt is coauthoring a book on the history and future of space exploration, under contract with Oxford University Press. He is also helping to revitalize the historic Georgetown Observatory, the third oldest astronomical observatory in the United States, as the home of a new institute for thinking on space exploration and security. In the rest of his time he avidly finds his way into mountains, archaeology sites, and launch complexes.
Matt remains research affiliate at MIT and Stanford, a fellow of the Explorers Club, member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and adjunct professor at Georgetown.
For his work on planetary defense, Asteroid 22028 Matthewdaniels, discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey, is named for him. The asteroid is non-hazardous, approximately 2-3 km in diameter, and orbits in the inner main belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Matt started as an engineer at NASA, where he worked on spacecraft designs and building new technology projects with U.S. allies and partners in Europe, the Middle East, and South America. He got his Ph.D. from Stanford, and has received the Department of Defense medals for Distinguished Public Service and Distinguished Civilian Service.
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