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Staff

Dr. Derek O’Callaghan, Senior Adjunct Fellow

Dr. O'Callaghan is currently a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Institute, working on the European perspective within the Shaping Science and Technology to Serve National Security project. A graduate of Sandhurst, BG O'Callaghan, joined the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars in December 1965 serving mainly in Germany. He then saw active service in Northern Ireland and Cyprus. After graduating from the Army Staff College and the Royal Military College in Shrivenham, where he studied military technology, he commanded a squadron and was an Executive Officer in a Brigade before returning to the Army Staff College as a Directing Staff. This position was followed by Command of his Regiment where they conducted worldwide reconnaissance.

On relinquishing command, the focus of his military career changed from operations to acquisition, and as a Colonel he held research procurement and customer appointments in MDO and chaired a NATO Panel. On Promotion to Brigadier he held the appointment of Director Operational Requirements (Land), where he was responsible for the formulation and direction of national and joint international research and equipment programs for all land systems capability areas, including armor, infantry weapons, artillery, engineer, communications and IT, and surveillance and target acquisition. He had similar responsibilities for Tri-service NBC and logistic and training programs. Finally, he was heavily involved in the Strategic Defense Review.

He is a member of the Defense Scientific Advisory Board and participates in the Weapons Board. He has lectured extensively at Universities worldwide and at the Royal United Services Institute.

He retired from the Army in June 1999 and was sponsored by the Engineering Faculty at University College London where he achieved a Ph.D. in September 2001. His thesis addressed the impact of culture on defense procurement. He maintains close ties with the U.S., and continues his interest in government related issues.