Jennifer Anne Watson ’95 ’97MS

Dr. Jennifer A. Watson ’95, ’97MS Electrical Engineering is head of the Homeland Protection and Air Traffic Control Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. In this role she oversees research and development for key mission areas including homeland security, transportation safety and efficiency, critical infrastructure protection, and energy resilience. Key technologies include artificial intelligence for decision support, integrated software architectures, multimodal sensors and fusion, and unmanned air vehicle technology development. 

Watson joined the Laboratory in 1997 as an associate technical staff member in the Surveillance Techniques Group and began her career developing antenna systems for complex communication environments, with a focus on modeling, development, and field testing. Upon completing her doctoral degree in 2003, she became involved in undersea surveillance work, developing adaptive signal processing approaches for underwater acoustic systems. She combined propagation phenomenology and sensing architectures with novel signal processing techniques to develop and transition capabilities for U.S. Navy programs. 

In 2008, she transitioned to the Airborne Radar Systems and Techniques Group and was appointed assistant leader in 2010 and leader in 2013. During this time, she led several programs focused on advanced radar and electronic warfare capabilities for ground and maritime surveillance, including adaptive detection and artificial intelligence–enabled exploitation. Under her leadership, the group developed and fielded a series of test beds, including a multichannel Airborne Radar Test Bed to support the development and prototyping of airborne ground surveillance capabilities. In 2020, Watson was promoted to Assistant Head in the ISR and Tactical Systems Division, where she built collaborations across many of the Laboratory’s divisions to develop a portfolio of programs focused on analysis and technologies in support of Joint All-Domain Command and Control.  

As a member of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Steering Committee, she develops strategies to ensure long-term success and continued Laboratory impact toward technology for national security. She is also invested in cultivating a strong culture of innovation and deeply committed to diversity and inclusion both across the Laboratory and the national security technical community. She is a member of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society and has supported studies for the National Academies.   

She is married with three children and enjoys running, cheering on her kids at soccer and track, and relaxing at the beach with family and friends.  

In addition to her BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from UMass Amherst, she holds a PhD degree in ocean engineering from MIT.