Rhiannon Hutton is a member of the inaugural cohort of the Andrew Carnegie AI-Nuclear Policy Accelerator. 

Rhiannon Hutton is a Researcher and Assistant Director in the Strategy, Forces and Resources Division at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). A nuclear physicist by training, she currently leads analyses related to nuclear deterrent force structure, force posture, and operations. As a project lead, she builds interdisciplinary teams that apply modern data analysis and visualization techniques to complex integration problems for the U.S. Air Force, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. She  is a former member of the Defense Science Board Permanent Subcommittee on Nuclear Weapons Surety.

Her duties as an Assistant Director in SFRD are centered on talent management, including recruitment, retention, employee engagement, and professional development.

Before joining IDA, she was a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees in physics from Michigan State University and a bachelor’s degree in physics from Florida State University.