Working on the Dark Side of the Moon: Life Inside the National Security Agency

To most Americans, the NSA is an organization shrouded in secrecy, where the most clandestine of operations are carried out in the name of national security. Dr. Thomas Willemain, successful software entrepreneur and statistics professor, spent the equivalent of three years alternating between his life "outside" and working "inside" at the NSA and an affiliated, shadowy think tank.

Once inside, Dr. Willemain would be challenged to adjust to life in an intense, complex and sometimes alien organization, while also encountering brilliant and quirky colleagues, the moral challenges of wielding math and statistics as weapons, a charming (if kitschy) gift shop, and ultimately, some of the most rewarding time of his career.

A deeply personal account of the years spent within the most secretive organization in the world, Working on the Dark Side of the Moon explores the range of emotions an outsider experiences while crossing over to the "inside." It also shows the positive side of an Agency whose secrecy hides dedicated men and women devoted to protecting the country while honoring the Constitution.

Thomas Reed Willemain received the BSE (summa cum laude) from Princeton University and the PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His academic career has included faculty positions at M.I.T., Harvard's Kennedy School, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he is Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He is also a founder and Senior Vice President at Smart Software, Inc. in Boston. He served in the Intelligence Community as an Expert Statistical Consultant at the National Security Agency and as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses/Center for Computing Sciences.