Professor Margaret E. Kosal

Professor Margaret E. Kosal is Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she serves as Director of Graduate Studies, as Director of the Georgia Tech Military Fellows Program, and as Director of the Geopolitics of Emerging Science and Technologies Initiative.

Her research uses theories and concepts from the social sciences, primarily international relations and comparative political economy, to explore relationships among science, technology, and security and to explain how these phenomena impact innovation, cooperation, and conflict. Kosal is an elected Honorary Lifetime Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Formally trained as an experimental scientist, Kosal earned a doctoral degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) working on biomimetic and nano-structured functional materials. She is also the co-founder of a sensor company, where she led research and development of medical, biological, chemical sensors and explosives detection.

Professor Kosal previously has served as a Senior Advisor to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, as Science and Technology Advisor within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), as Senior Adjunct Scholar to the Modern War Institute at West Point, and as an Associate to the National Intelligence Council (NIC). From June 2022-23, she served as Senior Fellow at the US Department of Energy’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL), helping stand up the new Nonproliferation Applied Sciences Center (NASC). She remains a Joint Faculty Appointee to SRNL in addition to also serving as a member of the SRNL National Security Advisory Board (NSAB).

She is the recipient of multiple awards including the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence. Professor Kosal has been appointed to multiple US National Academies of Science (NAS) committees, including serving in leadership roles.