Clapper Names New Director of Intelligence Research Agency

National Intelligence Director James Clapper selected Peter Highnam as the second director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity.

Highnam, a former senior adviser to the National Institutes of Health, has been serving as acting director of the intelligence research agency since the departure of its first director, Lisa Porter, in May, according to a statement today from the director’s office.

The research agency, a center within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, invests in “high-risk, high- payoff research programs” designed to give the U.S. “an overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries,” according to the statement.