LTC Andrew W. Decker, Ph.D.

LTC Andrew Decker directs the Nuclear Science & Engineering Research Center at the United States Military Academy (USMA) in West Point, New York.

He graduated from USMA in 2002 with a B.S. in general psychology. He commissioned as a Military Intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, and served in a variety of staff and leadership positions for the first 10 years of his Army career.

Following his second deployment to Iraq, LTC Decker was selected to become a FA52 (nuclear and countering weapons of mass destruction) officer and attended the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) to pursue a Master of Science in nuclear science. Upon graduation in 2014, he was assigned to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) as deputy director of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Research Center (NSERC) at West Point.

He served at the NSERC until 2018 when he was selected to attend the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and subsequently earned a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering in 2021. Following graduation, LTC Decker returned to AFIT as an assistant professor of nuclear engineering, teaching graduate courses on the Physics of Nuclear Explosives, Prompt Effects of Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Instrumentation, and U.S. Nuclear Strategy and Policy. 

In 2024, he was reassigned back to the DTRA NSERC.

LTC Decker is married to the former Jill Graff, and they have two daughters.