LTC Andrew W. Decker, Ph.D.

LTC Andrew Decker graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2002 with a B.S. in General Psychology.  He commissioned as a Military Intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, he served in a variety of staff and leadership positions for the first 10 years of his Army career.

Following his second deployment to Iraq, Andrew was selected to become a FA52 (Nuclear and Countering WMD) officer, so he attended the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) to pursue a Master of Science in Nuclear Science.  Upon graduation from AFIT in 2014, Andrew was assigned to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) as Deputy Director of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Research Center (NSERC) at West Point, NY. 

He served at the NSERC until 2018, at which point he was selected to attend the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and subsequently earned a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering in 2021.  Following graduation, Andrew returned to AFIT as an Assistant Professor of Nuclear Engineering, and he taught graduate courses on the Physics of Nuclear Explosives, Prompt Effects of Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Instrumentation, and U.S. Nuclear Strategy and Policy. 

In 2024, Andrew was reassigned back to the DTRA NSERC at West Point, NY, where he currently serves as the Director. 

Andrew is married to the former Ms. Jill Graff, and they have two daughters.