Ash Carter

Ash Carter
Official portrait, 2015
25th United States Secretary of Defense
In office February 17, 2015 – January 20, 2017
President	Barack Obama
Deputy	Robert O. Work
Preceded by	Chuck Hagel
Succeeded by	Jim Mattis
31st United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
In office October 6, 2011 – December 4, 2013
President	Barack Obama
Secretary	Leon Panetta Chuck Hagel
Preceded by	William J. Lynn III
Succeeded by	Christine Fox (acting)
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics
In office April 27, 2009 – October 5, 2011
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	John J. Young Jr.
Succeeded by	Frank Kendall III
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs
In office June 30, 1993 – September 14, 1996
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Stephen Hadley
Succeeded by	Jack Dyer Crouch II (2001)
Personal details
Born	Ashton Baldwin Carter (1954-09-24)September 24, 1954 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	October 24, 2022(2022-10-24) (aged 68) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic[1]
Spouses	Clayton Spencer ​ (divorced)​ Stephanie DeLeeuw[2]
Relations	Cynthia DeFelice (sister)
Children	2
Education	Yale University (BA) University of Edinburgh St John's College, Oxford (DPhil)
Signature
Academic background
Thesis	Hard processes in perturbative QCD (1979)
Doctoral advisor	Christopher Llewellyn Smith
Ash Carter's voice Ash Carter announces the opening of all military occupations and positions to women Recorded December 3, 2015

Ashton Baldwin Carter (September 24, 1954 – October 24, 2022) was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States secretary of defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.^[3]

Carter began his career as a physicist. After a brief experience as an analyst for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, he switched careers to public policy. He joined the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1984 and became chair of the International & Global Affairs faculty.^[4] Carter served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy during President Clinton's first term, from 1993 to 1996, responsible for policy regarding the former Soviet states, strategic affairs, and nuclear weapons.

During President Obama's first term, he served first as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and then Deputy Secretary of Defense until December 2013. In February 2015, he replaced Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense and served until the end of the Obama administration.^[5] During his tenure, he ended the ban of transgender officers in the military. In 2016, Carter opened all military occupations and positions to women without exception. This marked the first time in U.S. history that women with the appropriate qualifications would be allowed to serve in military roles such as infantry, armor, reconnaissance, and special operations units.^[6]

For his service to national security, Carter had on five occasions been awarded the DOD Distinguished Public Service Medal. He had also received the CJCS Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and the Defense Intelligence Medal for his contributions to intelligence. Carter was author or co-author of eleven books and more than 100 articles on physics, technology, national security, and management.^[7]