LTC Andrew W. Decker, Ph.D.

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

He graduated from USMA in 2002 with a bachelor's degree 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's degree in nuclear science. Upon graduation in 2014, he was assigned to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) as NSERC deputy director at West Point.

He served at NSERC until 2018 when he was selected to attend the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and subsequently earned a doctorate in nuclear engineering in 2021. Following graduation, 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 and NSERC.

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