Ashton Baldwin Carter (born September 14, 1954) is a United States national security professional serving as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense. Prior to that, he served as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) for President Barack Obama. He is currently on leave from his post as Co-Director (with former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry) of the Preventive Defense Project, a research collaboration of Harvard and Stanford universities. He is also on leave from the International Relations, Security, and Science faculty at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is a member of the guiding coalition of the Project on National Security Reform. On August 2, 2011, President Obama nominated Carter to be the new Deputy Secretary of De