CAMBRIDGE, MA—The Center for International Studies at MIT announces today that Paul Heer, a recent National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, has been named a Robert E. Wilhelm fellow. Dr. Heer will arrive to MIT in September 2015 and will be in residence at CIS for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Dr. Heer served as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia—the senior analyst of East Asian affairs in the US Intelligence Community—in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from 2007 to 2015. A career officer of the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Intelligence, he began that career in 1983 as a political and foreign policy analyst on Southeast Asia before specializing on China as an analyst and analytic manager. He served on the staff of the President's Daily Brief, and as a member of the CIA's Senior Analytic Service and the Senior Intelligence Service. Dr. Heer was the Visiting Intelligence Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations during 1999-2000 and was subsequently elected a Life Member of the Council.

He holds a B.A. degree from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa; an M.A. in history from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in diplomatic history from The George Washington University.

Dr. Heer will spend his time at MIT researching and writing on US relations with East Asia, both contemporary and historical, and Chinese political and foreign policy developments. He will also meet with faculty and students to discuss issues related to East Asia.

"It is an honor to welcome Paul to MIT. He will be bringing with him a wealth of knowledge in East Asian affairs that will greatly benefit the CIS community. We hope he finds his time here equally rewarding." said Richard Samuels, director of the Center for International Studies and Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT."

A generous gift from Robert E. Wilhelm supports the Center's Wilhelm fellowship. The fellowship is awarded to individuals who have held senior positions in public life and is open, for example, to heads of non-profit agencies, senior officials at the State Department or other government agencies, including ambassadors, or senior officials from the UN or other multilateral agencies. Previous Wilhelm fellows include: Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Ambassador Frances Deng, Admiral William Fallon, and Yukio Okamoto, a former special advisor to the prime minister of Japan.