Maj Christopher Olsen was an Air Force Strategic Policy Fellow assigned to the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Background: Major Olsen commissioned through ROTC in 2008. His first assignment was to the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, where he performed technical intelligence analysis on space systems. In 2011 he began duty at the National Security Agency (NSA) while assigned to the 34^thIntelligence Squadron, Ft Meade, Maryland. There, he was dual-hatted as both a flight commander and chief of the Nuclear Communications Solutions branch. His last year at Ft Meade was spent on staff at the 707^th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group as chief of plans and programs. During his time at Ft Meade, he spent six months deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, serving as the detachment Officer-in-Charge (OIC) for the 777^th Expeditionary Prime Base Engineering Expeditionary Force (Prime BEEF) squadron. He began studies for a PhD in Aeronautical Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio in 2015 with a focus on optimization and optimal control theory. Upon graduation in 2018, he was assigned to the Aerospace Systems Directorate at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. While at AFRL, Maj Olsen split time between leadership positions and developing autonomy behaviors and system requirements for what would eventually become the Air Force’s Skyborg Vanguard program. In 2019 he was selected to serve as the executive officer to the AFRL commander, before starting his fellowship at the Mitchell Institute in 2020.

Areas of Focus: Autonomy, Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T), optimization/optimal control, science and technology program management, and technical intelligence analysis.

Academic and professional titles: Major Olsen has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University (2008), a Master of Science in Systems Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (2014), and a Doctor of Philosophy in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (2018).