Dr. Nandi Leslie serves as a Principal Technical Fellow at RTX (formerly known as Raytheon Technologies) – this position is the highest technical honor for RTX employees. While serving in this position, she has held additional RTX roles, including the Chief Data Scientist for a Department of Homeland Security program with total value of $1.2B, Chief Engineer for the $330M Raytheon R&D portfolio, and Technical Director for Cybersecurity with global teams.

Since 2020, Dr. Leslie has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Applied and Computational Mathematics Program. Since 2019, she has served as a Visiting Professor at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Senegal.

Before joining RTX in 2015, Dr. Leslie led and contributed to projects on modeling and simulation related to sensor performance (e.g., acoustic, radar, Global Positioning System) and cybersecurity for the Navy, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and other customers at Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. as a Program Manager and Senior Operations Research Analyst starting in 2007. From 2005 to 2007, she taught at the University of Maryland, College Park in the Department of Mathematics as a Lecturer, where she was also a Postdoctoral Researcher sponsored by the National Science Foundation Vertical Integration of Research and Education in the Mathematical Sciences conducting research.

Dr. Leslie is an award-winning applied mathematician and technology leader who has written over 60 publications in journals, conference proceedings, and edited books, and she has presented her research at over 100 international conferences, workshops, and meetings. She received the BEYA Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution in Industry in 2020.

Dr. Leslie serves as a member of the Princeton University Board of Trustees, and she has served on the following boards/committees:

• President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, Strategy for Increasing Trust in the Information and Communications Technology and Services
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Army Board on Army R&D on AI and Justified Confidence Committee
• NASEM on AI Test and Evaluation for the Air Force Committee
• Howard University, Center of Excellence in AI and Machine Learning Advisory Board
• Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Industry Committee
• SIAM Committee on Programs and Conferences

This is part of the Princeton in Washington program, which is open to current Princeton students and recent alumni in the D.C. area over the summer. Email the Princeton in Washington coordinator to learn the location and RSVP.