William D. Maughan

Dr. Douglas Maughan is the inaugural Office Head for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator. NSF has launched the program to accelerate use-inspired convergence research in areas of national importance, and initiate convergence team-building capacity around exploratory, potentially high-risk proposals. The teams are multidisciplinary and leverage partnerships resulting in deliverables that will benefit society within a fixed term. NSF intends to support fundamental research while encouraging rapid advances through partnerships that include multiple stakeholders (e.g., industry, academic, not-for-profits, government entities).

Dr. Maughan previously served within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate as the Division Director of the Industry Partnerships (OIP) Division within the Office of Innovation and Collaboration (OIC). Dr. Maughan was responsible for leading the formation and sustainment of internal and external partnerships across R&D communities, enabling joint R&D and resulting in stronger connections with developer and user communities. Dr. Maughan was responsible for (1) the innovation mechanisms, such as SBIR, SVIP, Prize, and BAAs, (2) Post-R&D activities associated with technology transfer and commercialization, and (3) the Office of the SAFETY Act Implementation.

Dr. Maughan previously served as the Division Director of the Cyber Security Division within the Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate. Dr. Maughan was responsible for helping bring to market over 75 commercial and open-source information security products during the 15 years he served as the Cyber Security Division Director at DHS.

Prior to his appointment at DHS, Dr. Maughan was a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Prior to his appointment at DARPA, he worked for the National Security Agency (NSA) as a senior computer scientist and led several research teams performing network security research.

Dr. Maughan received Bachelor’s Degrees in Computer Science and Applied Statistics from Utah State University, a Masters degree in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).