The Texas A&M University System, with its 11 universities and eight state agencies, supports a robust research enterprise, including scores of U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Energy projects.
The Nuclear Security Office works to expand the network between academia and the national labs. Projects range from Texas A&M University and Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers collaborating to produce radioactive isotopes — which could improve future cancer treatments — to studying advanced reactor structural materials under extreme radiation conditions to improve the materials used for building reactor cores.
Research Security
The Texas A&M University System (TAMU System) understands the complexities of meeting federal requirements for securing sensitive research. The Research Security Office (RSO) serves all system principal investigators and project collaborators to ensure full compliance to all applicable laws, regulations and requirements.
The RSO has received national recognition through its effective operating model that includes four primary functions: 1) capabilities and 2) services, 3) internal and external stakeholder priorities and 4) associated federal requirements.
The office received the Colonel James S. Cogswell Award for Industrial Security Excellence from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) in 2015, 2020 and again in 2023. They were also recognized by DCSA in 2017, 2021, and again in 2023 with the Donnelly Award for Excellence in Counterintelligence. Together, these two awards place the A&M System’s RSO well inside the top one-tenth of one percent of more than 10,500 Cleared Defense Contractors in the United States. In 2019, FBI director Christopher Wray commended Texas A&M by name before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary for its extra measures to protect sensitive information and intellectual property. No other academic institution has received this recognition multiple times.
From safeguarding classified information through the National Industrial Security Program to securing controlled unclassified information, the TAMU System RSO has demonstrated its ability to protect critical intellectual property through its effective operating model: management and oversight, compliance, IT and security operations.
TAMU System is committed to upholding the highest ethical standards and conduct regarding export control laws and regulations. By complying with applicable export control laws, the TAMU System recognizes the necessity of maintaining an open research environment, while balancing mitigation procedures to protect the interests of the United States.
The RSO enables principal investigators and their collaborators to maintain federal funding while decreasing the administrative and technical burden imposed by these requirements and has deployed a Secure Computing Enclave for the TAMU System.
The RSO is fully capable of managing all aspects of the security clearance process and classified research. System has participated in the National Industrial Security Program since 1974 and is a cleared defense contractor.
For more information, please contact the Research Security Office.
National Nuclear Security Administration Stewardship Science Academic Alliances
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office of Experimental Sciences funds research through the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program at Texas A&M University through the Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training and University-Based Research (CENTAUR) and the Center for Research Excellence on Dynamically Deformed Solids (CREDDS) to support state-of-the-art research in the areas of fundamental physical science and technology of relevance to the Stockpile Stewardship Program mission.
Facilities
The Texas A&M University System has a network of facilities for use in conducting cutting edge national security research. Below, we highlight just a few of our facilities actively being utilized in collaboration with NNSA.
Cyclotron Institute
The Cyclotron Institute facility operates a K500 superconducting cyclotron and its advanced electron cyclotron resonance ion sources. Together, these provide a powerful arsenal of intermediate-energy projectiles for use in both fundamental and applied studies.
Fuel Cycle and Materials Laboratory
Currently funded projects from the U.S. Department of Energy include processing activities to develop advanced nuclear fuels for burning transuranic radionuclides and radioactive waste forms for isolating fission products.
Center for Large-Scale Scientific Simulations (CLASS)
A joint center of Texas A&M University and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, the Center for Large-Scale Scientific Simulations has access to various computing clusters at Texas A&M University, including the HYDRA IBM p5-575 Cluster, as well as various massively parallel computers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Accelerator Laboratory
The Accelerator Laboratory is one of the largest university ion irradiation facilities in the U.S. A total of five accelerators are able to deliver virtually all ions in the elemental table with ion energy from a few hundred electron volts (eVs) to a few mega electron volts (MeVs).