Joel F. Brenner specializes in cyber and physical security, data protection and privacy, intelligence law, the administration of classified information and facilities, and the regulation of sensitive cross-border transactions. He has represented companies and individuals in a wide variety of transactions and proceedings including sensitive foreign acquisitions involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), the law governing network operations, the liability of foreign governments, export controls, and internal corporate and government investigations. He has years of experience inside and outside government involving national and homeland security.

Mr. Brenner was Senior Counsel at the National Security Agency, advising Agency leadership on the public-private effort to create better security for the Internet. From 2006 until mid-2009, he was the head of U.S. counterintelligence under the Director of National Intelligence and was responsible for integrating the counterintelligence activities of the 17 departments and agencies with intelligence authorities, including the FBI and CIA and elements of the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security. From 2002 – 2006, Mr. Brenner was NSA’s Inspector General, responsible for that agency’s top-secret internal audits and investigations. He has also served as a prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and has extensive trial and arbitration experience in private practice.

The Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has awarded him the Robert Wilhelm Fellowship for 2014-2015, a position that permits him to carry on his practice. While at MIT, he will be working on intelligence and security issues related to foreign affairs. He is particularly interested in intelligence collection, privacy, and secrecy as emerging issues in international relations and in the potential for curbing state-sponsored theft of intellectual property.

Mr. Brenner holds a JD from the Harvard Law School, a PhD from the London School of Economics, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law & National Security. He has written about intelligence oversight and Presidential authority to suspend or prohibit foreign takeovers of U.S. firms, and is often quoted in the national media on data security, privacy, and intelligence issues. Mr. Brenner was awarded the Intelligence Community Achievement Medal in July 2009.

Mr. Brenner is the author of AMERICA THE VULNERABLE: INSIDE THE NEW THREAT MATRIX OF DIGITAL ESPIONAGE, CRIME AND WARFARE (Penguin Press, 2011), now available in paperback as GLASS HOUSES: PRIVACY, SECRECY, AND CYBER INSECURITY IN A TRANSPARENT WORLD (Penguin Press, 2013)

Mr. Brenner is admitted to practice in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, and New York.

Dr. R. David Edelman comes to MIT having distinguished himself as one of the U.S. government’s foremost voices on how technology is changing our economy, national security, and daily lives. An expert on pressing technology challenges facing national security and the global economy, his insights have helped shape national and international policy at the highest levels.

In his most recent role as Special Assistant to the President for Economic and Technology Policy at the National Economic Council (NEC), he led the White House team focusing on the digital economy — including broadband, telecommunications, spectrum, and technology trade — as well as consumer cybersecurity, domestic and international data privacy, high-tech patent and copyright issues, and antitrust/competition.

In his time at the White House he led engagement with hundreds of technology companies around the world; advised the President on a range of emerging technologies such as big data, drones, and autonomous vehicles; and designed and managed over $15 billion of signature programs focused on technology, education, and economic opportunity.

He was awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for his work on intelligence matters, and was twice the recipient of the Meritorious Honor Award for his United Nations negotiations and development of the nation’s cyber diplomacy strategy. He was previously named one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” leaders in Law & Policy, and later chosen as a “30 Under 30 All-Star Alumni” — one of only three in the magazine’s history — for his ongoing contributions to national policy.

Edelman holds a bachelor’s degree in History (with honors) from Yale and Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Oxford in International Relations. His dissertation, “Cyberattacks in International Relations,” examined which forces might restrain state use of offensive cyber capabilities.

Yukio Okamoto, a former special advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan, is a senior research fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies. Mr. Okamoto was a career diplomat in Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His overseas postings included stints in Paris at the OECD and in the embassies in Cairo and Washington. He retired from the Ministry in 1991 and established Okamoto Associates Inc., a political and economic consultancy. Post-retirement, Mr. Okamoto has served in a number of advisory positions. From 1996 to 1998, he was special advisor to Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. From October 2001 to March 2003, he was special advisor to the Cabinet. From March 2003 to March 2004, he was special advisor on Iraq to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Concurrent with the above last two posts he was chairman of the Prime Minister's Task Force on Foreign Relations. Until September of 2008 he was a member of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's Study Group on Diplomacy.

Mr. Okamoto is an adjunct professor of international relations at Ritsumeikan University. He sits on the Board of Directors of several multinational companies. He is the president of Shingen'eki Net, a non-profit group for active seniors with 16,000 members.

Mr. Okamoto has written books on Japanese diplomacy and government and is a regular contributor to major newspapers and magazines. Mr. Okamoto is a well-known public speaker and a frequent guest on public affairs and news broadcasts.

A generous gift from Robert E. Wilhelm supports an annual fellowship at MIT's Center for International Studies for an individual who has held senior positions in public life. The Wilhelm Fellowship is open, for example, to heads of non-profit agencies, senior officials at the State Department or other government agencies, including ambassadors, or senior officials from the UN or other multilateral agencies. Wilhelm Fellows come with an intellectual project to be accomplished at CIS and collaborate with MIT faculty members in research and/or teaching. They are provided with an office, administrative support and a stipend. To inquire about applying, contact CIS executive director John Tirman (tirman@mit.edu / 617-253-9861).

The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship is organized by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and the friends and family of Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter who was killed in May 2003 while covering the war in Iraq. The fellowship supports women journalists who report on human rights and social justice issues, and combines research opportunities at CIS and other Boston-area universities with opportunities at the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

Neuffer Fellows design a program that combines academic research with practical experience covering human rights. They also play a key role in the Elizabeth Neuffer Forum on Human Rights and Journalism, a program held each May. For more information or to apply, contact the IWMF at neuffer@iwmf.org.

Jayita Sarkar is a Research Fellow with the Security Studies Program at MIT's Center for International Studies. Her expertise is in international security, nuclear proliferation, foreign policy analysis, and South Asia. Dr. Sarkar is a former Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Her research projects have been funded by the Stanton Foundation, Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom, Swiss National Science Foundation, Lyndon Johnson Foundation and Gerald Ford Foundation. Sarkar's writings have been published in peer-reviewed journals like Cold War History, International History Review, and Critique Internationale and policy-relevant outlets like The National Interest and Foreign Policy magazine among others. She holds a Ph.D. in International History and Politics from the Graduate Institute Geneva in Switzerland.