Year - 2026

Lifetime Achievement for the Advancement of Education for Future Energy Leaders

Professor Meghan L. O’Sullivan

Professor of the Practice of international affairs, Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project, and Director of the Belfer Center For Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School

Dr Meghan L. O’Sullivan is the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Project, and Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. A member of the Harvard Kennedy School faculty since 2008, she is widely recognised for her work at the intersection of geopolitics, energy, security, and international affairs, and for her commitment to teaching and mentoring future global leaders.

Professor O’Sullivan has held several senior policymaking positions and has advised national security leaders in both Republican and Democratic administrations. Between 2004 and 2007, she served as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and, during the final two years of her tenure, as Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan. Her distinguished public service has been recognised with numerous honours, including the U.S. Department of Defense’s Distinguished Public Service Medal—the highest civilian award presented by the Department—and the U.S. Department of State’s Superior Honor Award, which she has received on three occasions. She has also advised leading global businesses on geopolitical risk and international strategy.

Her research and scholarship examine the convergence of geopolitics, energy, markets, science, and public policy, helping to shape international understanding of the profound transformations taking place in the global energy system. Her award-winning book Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power (2017) explored the geopolitical consequences of the energy revolution, while her co-authored Foreign Affairs article, Green Upheaval: The New Geopolitics of Energy, written with Jason Bordoff, was selected among the journal’s ten best print articles of 2022.

As Director of the Belfer Center, Professor O’Sullivan leads one of the world’s foremost policy research institutions, bringing together more than 300 scholars, practitioners, and former policymakers to advance research on international security, technology, science, energy, and the environment.

Professor O’Sullivan earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and both a Master of Science in Economics and a doctorate in Politics from the University of Oxford.