Fixing the Chemistry, Fixing the Capacity: Welcoming Dr. Sarah Glaven as Senior Advisor

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07/07/2026

Courtney Owens

Defense Capacity Is Won At The Chemical Baseline

Welcoming Dr. Sarah Glaven to Supply Energetics as Senior Advisor

At Supply Energetics, our core thesis is simple yet unyielding: if you aren’t fixing the chemistry, you aren’t fixing the capacity. As the defense industrial base rapidly moves past software-only solutions toward physical, asset-backed manufacturing acceleration, scaling munitions production requires more than just factory floor space-it requires anchoring our strategy with the absolute best design authorities in the world.

That is why we are thrilled to announce that Dr. Sarah Glaven has officially joined Supply Energetics as a Senior Advisor.

A Towering Force in Biotechnology and Sovereign Supply Chain Resilience

Dr. Glaven is a globally recognized authority in advanced biomanufacturing, biotechnology, and national security supply chain engineering. She has spent her decorated career at the intersection of basic science, execution, and federal policy-systematically modernizing how the United States builds, scales, and protects its critical material baselines.

Her remarkable background includes:

  • The White House (OSTP): Served as Principal Assistant Director for Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (2023–2025). In this role, she chaired the National Bioeconomy Board and coordinated over $15 billion in federal funding across the executive branch-including the DoD, DoE, and NSF-to drive industrial innovation and reshore critical capabilities.
  • The Pentagon: Established and led the Tri-Service Biotechnology for a Resilient Supply Chain program, overseeing the deployment of $300+ million to update defense laboratory infrastructure and create public-private prototyping partnerships.
  • The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL): Spent over a decade as a Senior Research Biologist and Branch Chief, pioneering the field of electromicrobiology, publishing dozens of peer-reviewed articles, and holding multiple patents significant to marine systems and national security.
  • Academia: Currently serves the bioeconomy ecosystem as the prestigious Gerhard R. Andlinger Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.

Deterrence is an Asset-Backed Game

The modern geopolitical landscape dictates that military deterrence is no longer just about the platforms we field; it is about the supply chains that feed them. True resilience requires moving away from legacy, single-point-of-failure chemical baselines toward automated, software-driven, and completely indigenous raw material synthesis.

Operating out of our advanced automation footprint in Kansas, Supply Energetics is hyper-focused on eliminating the structural chokepoint of Western defense: the nitrocellulose and propellant-grade material pipeline.

Dr. Glaven’s deep, dual-spectrum expertise in federal defense procurement and complex biomanufacturing infrastructure will be invaluable as we scale our highly automated production platform. Her guidance will ensure that as we replace 1940s-era chemical processes with modern, decentralized manufacturing, our feedstocks meet the absolute highest standards of sovereign defense verification.

Welcome to the team, Sarah. Let's fix the chemistry.

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