K. Scott Pugh, CAPT, USN (Retired)

Scott Pugh entered government service in 2007 as Special Assistant to the Honorable Jay M. Cohen, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science & Technology. At DHS he was a key contributor to multiple energy infrastructure security initiatives including planning and conducting three interagency and industry energy infrastructure war games, coordinating a 2011 JASONS study “Impacts of Severe Space Weather on the Electric Grid” and serving as Executive Secretary of a White House National Science & Technology Council Task Force on Electric Grid Vulnerabilities. 

Scott served as DHS representative to the 2012 North American Electric Reliability Corporation Geomagnetic Disturbance Task Force, the Federal Smart Grid Task Force, the White House National Science and Technology Council Geomagnetic Induced Current Interagency Working Group, Chair Person for the DHS Space Weather Team and supported the Joint DHS-DOD Capability Development Working Group which coordinates technology and policy issues of mutual interest to the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. In 2015 he assumed Technology Transfer responsibilities for the Department of Homeland Security with management oversight of invention reporting, patent applications and commercial licensing of DHS technologies until his  retirement from federal service in 2019. 

Prior to joining DHS he worked in the civilian sector as Military Principal at Rocky Mountain  Institute with CEO Amory Lovins to implement the advanced energy initiatives described in the  DOD-funded study “Winning the Oil Endgame” and served as a member of the Defense Science  Board Energy Strategy Task Force helping to produce the 2008 report “More Fight – Less Fuel”. 

Scott’s Navy career included assignments as Naval Academy Director of Mathematics and Science (Annapolis MD), Navy Special Programs Branch Head (Pentagon), Pacific Submarine Force Operations Officer (Pearl Harbor HI), Commanding Officer of the nuclear powered attack submarine USS WHALE (SSN-638) (New London CT and Bangor WA) and as a member of the Atlantic Fleet Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board (Norfolk VA). He retired from active duty as a Captain in 2005. 

Scott is a 1976 Naval Academy graduate where he earned a Bachelor of Science in engineering-physics and a 1983 Naval Postgraduate School graduate where he holds a Master of Science degree in physics with a focus on weapons effects. He is a native of Lake  Charles Louisiana and lives in Annapolis, Maryland with his wife Rebecca Wallace Pugh from  Louisa, Kentucky. They have three grown children. Scott is an FAA licensed private pilot, a life member of the US Tennis Association and a member of the Annapolis Yacht Club.