Ritsuko Akagi (赤木 リツコ?, "Akagi Ritsuko") is NERV's head scientist and, along with Gendo and Fuyutsuki, is the only person at NERV fully aware of the Evas' true nature and the purpose of the Instrumentality Project. Yuriko Yamaguchi voices her in Japanese, Sue Ulu in the English series, and Colleen Clinkenbeard in the English Rebuild of Evangelion series. She is a workaholic and heavy smoker, and has been friends with both Misato and Kaji since college.
She is also romantically involved with Gendo., but feels betrayed by Gendo when she realizes that he was using her in the same way that he used her mother. As revenge, she destroys the Dummy Plug system. She is shot dead in The End of Evangelion, when she tries and fails to activate NERV's self-destruct mechanism to stop Gendo from initiating Third Impact.