Dr. Philip Root is an award-winning leader, operator, and scholar in national security and deep technology.

 

He currently serves as the CTO of GRVTY, a private equity-backed defense technology company. From 2017 to 2025, he held successive leadership roles at DARPA, including Director of the Strategic Technologies Office, where he managed a team of 200+ and an investment portfolio exceeding $700M – creating the strategic plan for the DoD's first lunar technology portfolio and leading development of the first fully autonomous U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter. A recognized thought leader in AI ethics and lethal autonomy policy, his earlier career included roles at West Point's Center for Innovation and Engineering and the NASA Astronaut Office.

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Phil holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was a Distinguished Graduate.