Eric Sanderson

Department of the Air Force–Stanford AI Studio — Stanford, CA

• Leading a research project on control of autonomous aircraft in contested environments; defining when aircraft can operate independently and when a person must intervene.
• Advising researchers and engineers on how autonomous systems affect authority, accountability, and judgment in decisions to use military force.

Department of the Air Force–MIT AI Accelerator — Remote

• Led a 17-member cohort of airmen conducting applied artificial intelligence research with MIT and Lincoln Laboratory.
• Researched multi-agent teaming for Lincoln Laboratory, studying how humans and autonomous systems share authority.

U.S. Air Force Academy — Colorado Springs, CO

• Led Air Force Special Warfare officer candidate outreach initiatives nationwide.
• Served as Air Force technical point of contact for the drone company PteroDynamics, bridging operational requirements with industry research to develop an unmanned aerial system built for austere environments.

Special Operations Task Force — Poland

• Led a team delivering operational analysis to partner drone units; supported 1,500+ missions in six months.
• Wrote software automating intelligence analysis, cutting a 7-hour process to 1 hour.
• Applied classification and release rules with the task force lawyer to clear intelligence before release to partner nations.
• Represented U.S. Special Operations Command Europe at an interagency conference on unmanned military systems.

Department of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board — Pentagon

• Researched autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence initiatives for the Air Force's senior scientific advisory body; organized three site visits on autonomous technology for intelligence and air operations.

13th Air Support Operations Squadron — Colorado Springs, CO

• Led training for a 124-person squadron; planned and ran a squadron-level rapid deployment exercise.

13th Air Support Operations Squadron — Colorado Springs, CO

• Deployed 220 days to train Ukrainian soldiers in long-range radio tactics to improve their survivability; coordinated air operations across four NATO exercises in Estonia, Poland, and Bulgaria.
• Ranked #1 of 62 lieutenants in the wing's annual performance report.

353rd Special Warfare Training Squadron — San Antonio, TX

• Led 24 Special Warfare airmen through initial skills training; earned the top peer ranking and graduated #1 of 24.
• Earned Joint Terminal Attack Controller certification.

B.A. Global Affairs | Russian Scholar Laureate

• Air Force ROTC Distinguished Graduate — ranked #1 nationally of ~1,800 cadets, Class of 2020.
• Boren Scholar: federal national-security scholarship for immersive Russian language study abroad.
• John Kerry Initiative Fellow: researched global climate security and ecological sustainability in Ukraine.
• Senior Capstone: "Cooperation and Stability in the Sahel Region."
• Languages: Russian and Ukrainian — selected for the Air Force's specialized language program.
• Yale Lightweight Crew · Yale Triathlon Club (Captain) · Yale-China Student Association Board

Military Courses

• Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course
• Joint Terminal Attack Controller Instructor Course
• NATO Joint Targeting Staff Course
• NATO SOF Drone Exploitation Course
• Special Warfare Cyber and Non-Kinetic Effects Course
• Special Warfare Space Integration Course
• Tactical Air Control Party Formal Training Course
• Tactical Air Control Party Apprentice Course
• Survival Evasion Resistance Escape Course
• Airborne School

• Published "Joint Terminal Attack Controllers in the Autonomous Age," arguing that artificial intelligence should expand the ground controller's capacity to direct airpower in contested airspace while keeping the decision to strike under human control.

• Selected from 70 submissions for Air Force Research Laboratory funding to build a digital assistant for military operators.
• Applying automatic speech recognition, local large language models, and retrieval augmented generation technologies to enhance controller awareness in saturated air control environments.

• Moderated a panel on American foreign policy and Russia's war in Ukraine for 240 attendees.

• Analyzed U.S. extended nuclear deterrence in Europe, delivering research briefings to senior LLNL stakeholders on strategic stability and allied assurance policy.