Wasif Syed

Biography

Wasif Syed is an associate physicist at the RAND Corporation. Prior to joining the D.C. office, Syed worked as a research petrophysicist at Shell International Exploration and Production, Inc. in Houston, TX. At Shell he was part of the In-Well Technologies team in Innovation and R&D and worked on fiber optic surveillance, specifically Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) for downhole measurements. Syed completed his Ph.D. in applied physics (with a minor in French) at Cornell University in 2009. At Cornell, he conducted research at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Center of Excellence in High Energy Density Pulsed-Power Driven Plasmas. His research was part of the NNSA Stockpile Stewardship Academic Alliances program, a U.S. nuclear and security policy initiative. While at Cornell, through the multiplicity of his interests, he led several international affairs programs and worked extensively with media. He is also on the board of the Asian Programs Foundation, a nonprofit based in New York City that enhances relations between Muslim Asia and the U.S. by using business leadership as a platform for constructive engagement.