Benjamin Daniel | MIT-School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences(SHASS)
June 9, 2025
Colonel Brian Brooks (left), the 755th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group commander, passes the 820th Intelligence Squadron guidon to Lieutenant Colonel Erik Lin-Greenberg (right), while Command Master Sergeant Cary Mueller, 820th Intelligence Squadron senior enlisted leader, looks on.
Photo Credits: Daniel Martinez/55th Wing Public Affairs
Erik Lin-Greenberg's role as a leader in the U.S. armed forces helps him develop strategies to effectively advise his students at MIT, while creating mentorship opportunities across both his leadership roles.
At a time when the U.S. Department of Defense increasingly grapples with emerging technologies and their implications for national security, Erik Lin-Greenberg ’09, SM ’09 occupies a rare position at the intersection of theory and practice.
The MIT political scientist and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve recently assumed command of the 820th Intelligence Squadron at the Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska, where he now leads dozens of officers and enlisted personnel. He does so while maintaining his full-time role as the Leo Marx Career Development Associate Professor in the History and Culture of Science and Technology at MIT, with areas of focus including emerging technologies, crisis escalation, and security.
Combining these two worlds — the military and the academic — has been natural for Lin-Greenberg, and he anticipates that his duties in both will continue to amplify each other.
“I’m honored to have the privilege of serving as a squadron commander,” Lin-Greenberg says. “I’ve learned a lot about leadership as a professor, an airman, and as a reservist, and look forward to serving the airmen in my squadron.”
From Benjamin Daniel, MIT-SHASS