Nuclear Security Enterprise Day

Come Meet Your Future Employer!

It all starts with a conversation, and we invite students to attend the 2023 Nuclear Security Enterprise Day on campus in College Station at the Zachry Engineering Education Complex located at 125 Spence St, College Station, TX 77843. The event will be held in the Chevron Conference Rooms on the 2^nd Floor.

FREE & OPEN TO ALL MAJORS – UNDERGRADUATE, GRADUATE, & DOCTORAL CANDIDATES

The Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) is made up of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its 8 labs, plants, and sites. NNSA is responsible for enhancing national security through the military application of nuclear science, which encompasses a vast variety of disciplines related to engineering and science.

If you are curious about what a career in national security might entail, or if you have always dreamed of serving our country through scientific development and application please register for this event. You will have the opportunity to speak face-to-face with researchers and recruiters from each NSE partner and learn about opportunities currently open.

Join the NNSA Production Office and Help Secure America’s Future – YouTube

NNSA Keynote Speech: 10 AM – 10:15 AM

• Monte Mallin – Senior Policy Advisor in the NNSA’s Office of Policy and Strategic Planning

Panel Discussion: 10:15 AM – 11 AM

• Listen to representatives from all 8 labs, plants and sites speak on their missions, what career paths look like, and about their individual experiences.

Career Fair Booths Open: 9 AM – 3 PM

• Don’t forget those resumes; submit them ahead of time to the contacts listed below!

To Register: click here or you may use the QR code.

Questions can be address to Janelle Salinas, National Laboratories Office Director at jsalinas@tamus.edu.

We look forward to meeting you on September 12, 2023!

Keynote Speaker & Panelists

NNSA Keynote Speaker – Monte Mallin

A Senior Policy Advisor in the NNSA’s Office of Policy and Strategic Planning. In this capacity, he is working with his team to strengthen NNSA’s role in the development and implementation of nuclear security policy to meet enduring and evolving risks to the NNSA mission. Until recently, he was the Deputy Director of the Policy and Strategic Planning office, which works to advance NNSA’s enterprise-wide objectives in areas such as strategic planning and partnerships, governance and management, and the facilitation of internal NNSA policy development. Monte has served in a variety of leadership roles since joining NNSA in 2001, and he had led several “over the horizon” analyses that have helped to identify long-term opportunities for DNN. He previously worked at the Department of State and at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, where he played key roles in helping to negotiate the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and other conventions. Mr. Mallin also served as the NNSA Chair for Nuclear Security Programs at the National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs from 2014-2016.

Los Alamos National Laboratory – T. J. Ulrich

Received a B.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1997. Following a short time as a metallurgical laboratory tech for Chromalloy Nevada, he returned to UNR, completing both an M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics, specializing in nonlinear elasticity and ultrasonic characterization of materials. Dr. Ulrich spent 18 years as a research scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), for whom he is now the Director of University Research and Relations for the Weapons Engineering directorate since August 2022. His technical work has focused on developing new acoustics-based experimental tools and techniques for materials characterization and nondestructive evaluation as well as developing instrumentation, software and performing experiments in support of laboratory mission projects. He is widely recognized as one of the main developers of experimental techniques for nonlinear acoustics, time reversal and combinations of the two, as well as for his contributions to Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy. This work has taken him around the world, serving as visiting scholars at the University of Paris, Polytecnico di Torino, and EMPA (Zurich, Switzerland). Dr. Ulrich established the Elasticity, Vibrations and Acoustics laboratory at LANL and, among other areas, is currently working to establish a Working group on Acoustics, Vibrations, and Elasticity (WAVE) between LANL and TAMU in his efforts to connect TAMU faculty and students to LANL research projects and programs.

Sandia National Laboratories – Brian Freno

Brian is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff in the Verification, Validation, Uncertainty Quantification, and Credibility Processes Department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, where he conducts research in reduced-order modeling, code verification, machine learning, computational fluid dynamics, and computational electromagnetics. He is the primary author of several journal articles and one patent. Brian serves as an associate editor for the ASME Journal of Verification, Validation and Uncertainty Quantification and as an adjunct professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is an active member of ASME and SIAM and a senior member of AIAA, where he serves on the Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee. Brian obtained his BS, MS, and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University, where he was a NASA GSRP Fellow. Upon graduating, he received the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award and the Outstanding Achievement Award for Aerodynamics and Propulsion. More recently, Brian received the Outstanding Young Aerospace Engineer distinguished alumni award. He has previously worked for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and Halliburton.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – Jack Kotovsky

Jack Kotovsky is the Micro and Nanotechnology Section Leader at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He has worked at LLNL in the Materials Engineering Division for 21 years. As the section leader, he owns line management responsibility for research staff supporting Micro and Nanotechnologies, biomedical engineering, and additive manufacturing. In his technical roles, he leads efforts to create novel MEMs and optic-fiber based sensors to support the Stockpile Stewardship mission. He has led a broad variety of technical projects including the fingerprinting and tamper-proofing nuclear weapon inventories for international treaty control, creating thermal safety systems for lithium-ion battery packs and building new methods to study traumatic brain injury. He currently runs a large project to create next-generation thermal management approaches for future high-power laser systems.

Jack earned a mechanical engineering Ph.D. from UC Davis in 2005, a business degree from Le Collège des Ingénieurs in Paris in 1993, mechanical engineering B.S. and M.S. degrees from M.I.T. in 1990 and 1992 and a Certificate of National Security Affairs from Texas A&M University. He holds 16 patents and strives to transition his inventions to broad government and commercial use. He recently received the Secretary of Energy Award for his efforts related to pandemic response by creating an FDA-approved ventilator in 5 weeks.

In his spare time, Jack loves inventing, fabricating, dirt biking, comedy, exercising and his family; not necessarily in that order!

Consolidated Nuclear Security – Joseph Boudreaux

Joe has over thirty-eight years of maintenance, engineering, and project management experience in the performance of operations, construction, maintenance, decontamination, and dismantlement activities at radiological and hazardous facilities. Holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Florida International University, and a project management professional certificate. Employed by Bechtel National, Lockheed Martin, Flour Daniel, and Babcock and Wilcox at various locations across the United States. Part of the CNS team since 2001 and has worked as a Project Engineer, Project Manager, Master/Strategic Planner, and Senior Director of Reliability Engineering. Activities include: the coordination of a project team to support D&D, construction, and maintenance in a production environment. Implemented lean processes to increase the reliability of equipment and systems. Responsibilities also include the development and management of cost, scope, and schedule during the execution of projects, maintenance activities and for department budgets. Functional Area Manager for the implementation of the LO/TO program and the Maintenance Integrated Work Control Process. Experience includes completing projects at Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulated facilities.

Kansas City National Security Campus – John Bartow

John is a Technical Manager in Product Engineering at Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies (FM&T), which manages and operates the Department of Energy’s Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC). With 5,700 employees in Kansas City and Albuquerque, the Kansas City National Security Campus provides diverse engineering, manufacturing, and secure sourcing services for national security. John has spent his 12-year career, at KCNSC, supporting the Nuclear Security Enterprise (NSE) mission through the production of non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons. Spending his first 2 years within the complex procuring Nuclear Grade Steels and Forgings, before supporting the production of Rubber and Plastic components for 4 years. John spent 5 years managing Advanced Material Processes. He is currently managing a Major Electrical Assembly team responsible for communications and trajectory components. John earned a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering with honors and a minor in Business from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He earned a Master in Business Administration from Rockhurst University and is Six Sigma Lean Expert certified.

Nevada Nuclear Security Site – Dr. Sean Breckling

Dr. Breckling is a Group Leader and Technical Manager in the new Computing & Data Science division at the NNSS. Since joining the NNSS, Sean has been PI of two multi-year Site-Directed Research & Development projects, both of which rely on artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing. Sean has also supported subcritical experiments at Cygnus as a quantitative radiographic imaging analyst, and technical lead. His current work involves the development of new statistical learning and model-reduction techniques in scopes ranging from computational hydrodynamics to tomographic reconstruction. Prior to joining the NNSS in 2019, Sean was a postdoc fellow at the University of Notre Dame, as well as the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). Sean is a US Air Force veteran, enlisted from 2004-2008. Upon discharge, he received his BS in Math in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He later received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from University of Nevada, Las Vegas under Professor Monika Neda.

Savanah River Site – Daniel Speaker

Dan Speaker is currently a Senior Engineer in the Nuclear and Criticality Safety Engineering group for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS). He is a Criticality Safety Engineer supporting the design of the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility for plutonium pit production and a radiation transport subject matter expert for the site. He has also supported assessments and production work at the Savannah River Site H Canyon, the nation’s last remaining large radiochemical separations facility.

Dan has over 21 years of experience in various facets of nuclear engineering including core design, radiation detection, shielding design, nondestructive evaluation, and nuclear reactor design, and has worked on a variety of nuclear engineering projects. Prior to SRNS, he worked at Southwest Research Institute as an NRC contractor. In this role he reviewed actions related to Post-Fukushima upgrades for half of the nuclear power plants in the U.S., preformed PRA application reviews, participated in MELCOR Consequence Analyses Code System review and code development, and took part of many other regulatory actions. He was a lead at the High-Level Radiation Effects Facility preforming dosimetry for nuclear plant components and conducted consolidating activities for sealed sources for disposal on the DOE’s Off-Site Source Recovery Project. He also worked on NASA contracts designing neutron shielding for the Clipper mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa and the SWiPS Project designing shielding to reduce the radiation noise for instruments measuring the properties of solar wind ions. He was also part of a team that designed a drone that flew inside Fukushima No. II Nuclear Power Plant. This activity led to him obtaining a patent, Additive Manufacturing for Shielding Neutron and Photon Radiation. Dan has also worked at Babcock and Wilcox on the mPower small modular reactor concept including the design of a 4-year cycle length reactor core and the spent fuel pool. One of these activities led to a patent for the shielding of NPP components, Nuclear Reactor Neutron Shielding. Dan earned a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from North Carolina State University, and as B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Resume Submissions

1. Los Alamos National Laboratory – Alexis Minervini, lminervini@lanl.gov
2. Sandia National Laboratories – Lori Torres, lortorr@sandia.gov
3. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory – Daphne Simons, simons3@llnl.gov
4. Consolidated Nuclear Security – Zuleyma Carruba-Rogel, zuleyma.carruba-rogel@pxy12.doe.gov
5. Kansas City National Security Campus – Rachel Adame, radame@kcnsc.doe.gov
6. Nevada Nuclear Security Site – Nicole Castro, Castronm@nv.doe.gov
7. Savanah River Site – Kedesha McClary, kedesha.mcclary@srs.gov
8. NNSA – Leandro Ortiz, leandro.ortiz@nnsa.doe.gov & NNSA NGFP, Alexander Godinez-Robinson, alexander.godinez-robinson@nnsa.doe.gov