UT-Austin Announces 2025 “Inman Award” Recipients
Published by The Lawfare Institute
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The Strauss-Clements Intelligence Studies Project at the University of Texas at Austin is pleased to congratulate the winners of the 11th annual Inman Award, which recognizes outstanding student writing on topics related to intelligence and national security.
The recipient of this year’s Inman Award is Dr. Jennifer Smith-Heys (Colonel, US Army), who recently earned her PhD in Public Policy from George Mason University. Her dissertation, A Roadmap to Reform: Building a Theory of Intelligence Commissions, evaluates how intelligence commissions emerge, operate, and influence intelligence reform.
The “graduate semifinalist” is Michael Martenak (Lieutenant, US Navy) who earned an MA in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. His thesis, Inherited Bias: The Causes of Russia's Intelligence Failure in Ukraine, examines the failure of the Russian intelligence services to understand the difficulty Russian forces would encounter invading Ukraine in 2022.
The “undergraduate semifinalist” is Maximilian DiGiovanni, an undergraduate student majoring in history and political science at the University of New Hampshire. His paper, Project TACKLE: 12 Years of CIA and Taiwanese Joint Reconnaissance Overflights, describes a joint program between the CIA and the Republic of China’s (ROC) Air Force that facilitated ROC U-2 overflights of the People’s Republic of China during the Cold War.
The Bobby R. Inman Award recognizes more than six decades of distinguished public service by Bobby R. Inman, Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.). Admiral Inman served in multiple leadership positions in the U.S. military, intelligence community, private industry, and at The University of Texas. His previous intelligence posts include Director of Naval Intelligence, Vice-Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Director of the National Security Agency, and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. He continues to serve as an advisor and mentor to UT students and faculty members, government officials, and innovators in business and technology.
The Intelligence Studies Project was established at The University of Texas at Austin in 2013 as a joint venture of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law and the Clements Center for National Security. The Project’s mission is to improve understanding of intelligence activities and institutions through research, courses, and public events bringing intelligence practitioners together with scholars, students, and the public.
This year’s Inman Award competition attracted more than 100 papers from undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at 36 different colleges and universities in the U.S. This broad participation reflects the growing academic interest in the intelligence studies discipline.
You can find all three papers below.
