Dr. Alan S. Rudolph

Director, Chemical and Biological Technologies directorate, Research and Development enterprise, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)

Dr. Alan S. Rudolph, a member of the Senior Service Executive, is the Director for Chemical and Biological Technologies directorate, Research and Development enterprise, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), Fort Belvoir, VA. DTRA safeguards America and its allies from weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons and high-yield explosives (CBRNE), by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat and mitigate its effects

Dr. Rudolph has led an active career in translating interdisciplinary life sciences into useful applications for biotechnology development. His experience spans basic research to advanced development in academia, government laboratories, and most recently in the non-profit and private sectors. He has published over 100 technical publications in areas including molecular biophysics, lipid self assembly, drug delivery, blood substitutes, medical imaging, tissue engineering, neuroscience and diagnostics.

As a National Research Council Post-Doctoral Fellow, his earliest work at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) demonstrated the translational value of strategies used by organisms that survive environmental extremes to preserve Defense products such as biosensors and blood products for field deployment. After a decade at NRL he was recruited to join the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to lead new strategic efforts to extract and exploit useful principles and practices in life sciences and technology and establish an agency-wide strategy for investments in biosciences and biotechnology. As Chief of Biological Sciences and Technology, Dr. Rudolph established a framework for investments that continue today. These included new programs in broad areas of bioscience and technology such as sensors, diagnostics, materials, robotics, biomolecular, cell and tissue engineering, medical devices, and neuroscience and technology, including the current efforts in revolutionizing prosthetics. He received a meritorious civil service citation from the Office of the Secretary of Defense for his contributions to defining and implementing a new generation of life sciences and national security investments.

In 2003, he left civil service for the private sector and starting new corporate biotechnology efforts. As Chief Executive Officer of Adlyfe Inc., a diagnostic platform company and Board Chairman of Cellphire Inc. Rudolph focused on development of novel hemostatic biologics for bleeding injuries. He secured venture capital funding and pharmaceutical partnerships while managing all aspects of development toward first human use. These efforts included managing early manufacturing and regulatory strategies required for FDA approval of diagnostics and therapeutics. Most recently, he started a new international non-profit foundation, The International Neuroscience Network Foundation, and, as Director, secured corporate and private philanthropic donors to fulfill the mission of the organization focused on brain stem efforts and clinical trial management in underserved populations.

He has a doctorate degree in Zoology from University of California at Davis and an MBA from George Washington University.