Dr. David S. P. Dearborn is a graduate of UCLA (1970) and the University of Texas at Austin (1975). He has held positions at the Copernicus Institute in Warsaw, the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, the California Institute of Technology, and Steward Observatory in Tucson.  He is currently a research physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 

He was the 1998 Shelby Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and has received two Pollock awards for work in the History of astronomy.  He has received three “Weapons Recognition of Excellence” awards from the Department of Energy. These awards recognized his contributions to laser hohlraum development, his work advancing the analysis of radar data, and finally for his efforts on the W87 Life Extension Program.  In 2006, he received a Defense and Nuclear Technologies acknowledgement for “outstanding contributions of the cross discipline improvement of ICBM accuracy ...”, and others (2007 and 2008) for “warhead contributions in support of Prompt Global Strike”. More recently he received a Defense Programs Award of Eexcellence for addressing planetary defense challenges.