On July 13, NSSPI Director Dr. William Charlton was awarded the 2010 Special Service Award by the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) at the banquet of their 51st annual meeting in Baltimore, MD. The INMM advertises the Special Service Award as one of the three “highest awards given by INMM” and cites the award as recognizing “noteworthy contributions to the industry or the Institute…that advance the knowledge and professionalism of the nuclear materials management field.” The award is an acknowledgement of Charlton’s stature in the international nuclear security, safeguards, and nonproliferation community and of his work to advance the cause of the INMM.
Charlton’s nomination for this award was supported across the spectrum with statements by current and former students, U.S. Congressman Chet Edwards, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Dr. Warren F. Miller, Adam Scheinman of the National Security Council, and several other high level officials from academia and the Department of Energy’s national laboratories. The list reads as a who’s who and attests to the impact that Charlton has made in the area of nuclear materials management.
Charlton’s contributions to the field include his work towards advancing nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation education both in the US and abroad, the establishment of the first student chapter of the INMM at Texas A&M University, and the founding of NSSPI, the first institute of its kind to combine technical expertise in nuclear nonproliferation with policy expertise through its collaboration with TAMU’s Bush School of Government and Public Service. He has also championed nuclear nonproliferation as a research area in nuclear engineering and established the nation’s first Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering with Specialization in Nuclear Nonproliferation at Texas A&M University.
Moreover, Charlton’s real contribution to the field-and the true result of all of these efforts-lies in the people he has taught and mentored, who, according to Dr. Pete Miller in his nomination letter, are his “gift that keeps on giving.” Appropriately, they were there in force at the banquet to share in his achievement.