Short Bio:
Dr. Siegfried S. Hecker is Professor of the Practice at the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University and Distinguished Faculty Fellow in The Center for Nuclear Security Science and Policy Initiatives (NSSPI). He is also Distinguished Professor of the Practice and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey. Dr. Hecker is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and Director Emeritus at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Hecker received his B.S. in metallurgy in 1965 and M.S. in metallurgy in 1967 from Case Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in metallurgy in 1968 from Case Western Reserve University. From 1970 to 1973 he was a senior research metallurgist at the General Motors Research Laboratories. He joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory as technical staff member in 1973, following a postdoctoral assignment there in 1968-1970 and a summer graduate student assignment in 1965. He served as chairman of the Center for Materials Science and division leader of the Materials Science and Technology Division before serving as director of the laboratory from 1986 through 1997, and then Senior Fellow of the laboratory until 2005. In 2005 and 2006, he was visiting professor at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), then joined the faculty of the Department of Management Science and Engineering as Professor (Research) and as Senior Fellow at CISAC. He was co-director of CISAC from 2007 to 2012 and retired from Stanford in August 2022. His teaching at Stanford University included classes on the role of technology on national security and all things nuclear.
Dr. Hecker has worked on all facets of nuclear technologies, from fundamental research in plutonium science to nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. Over the past three decades, he has fostered international cooperation on nuclear energy, nuclear security, strategic stability, nonproliferation, and countering nuclear terrorism. He has worked extensively with the Russian and Chinese nuclear laboratories to enhance safety and security of their nuclear assets. Dr. Hecker is the editor of Doomed to Cooperate (2016), two volumes documenting the history of Russian-U.S. laboratory-to-laboratory cooperation on nuclear security since 1992. He also continues to work on the challenges presented by nuclear India, Pakistan, North Korea, and the nuclear aspirations of Iran. His book, Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program, written with Elliot Serbin, will be published by Stanford University Press in February 2023.
Dr. Hecker serves as Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Nuclear Threat Initiative and on the Board of the Pacific Century Institute. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the India Institute of Metals, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the TMS (Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials Society), Fellow of the American Society for Metals, Honorary Member of the American Ceramics Society, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Hecker received the Presidential Enrico Fermi Award (2009), the Department of Energy’s E. O. Lawrence Award (1984), the 2018 American Association of Engineering Societies National Engineering Award. Dr. Hecker was named Great Immigrant/Great American by the Carnegie Corporation of New York in June 2022. He also received the 2020 Pacific Century Building Bridges Award, the American Nuclear Society Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal, 2017 (with Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar), the TMS-AIME Honorary Membership Award, and the ASM International Honorary Membership Award. He presented the Edward Teller Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness in Aiken, SC (2016), the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Eugene P. Wigner Distinguished Lecture (2015) and the Florida State University Nevill Mott Lecture (2013). Hecker received the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service (2014), National Academy of Engineering Arthur M. Bueche Award (2014), American Academy of Arts and Science Award for Science Diplomacy (2014), Leo Szilard Lectureship Award, American Physical Society (2011), Eugene L. Grant Undergraduate Teaching Award at Stanford University (2010), Materials Research Society Plenary Lecture (2010), Los Alamos National Laboratory Medal (2009), American Nuclear Society Seaborg Medal (2004), Acta Materialia J. Herbert Hollomon Award (2004), Case Western Reserve University Alumni Association Gold Medal (2004) and Undergraduate Distinguished Alumni Award (2001), American Ceramic Society Frontiers of Science and Society Rustum Roy Lecture (2002), ASM International, Rocky Mountain Chapter Charles S. Barrett Silver Medal (2001), New Mexico Distinguished Public Service Award, (1998); was named Laboratory Director of the Year by the Federal Laboratory Consortium, (1998); received an honorary Doctor of Science degree (Honoris Causa) from Colorado School of Mines (2006) and Case Western Reserve University (1998); received the Department of Energy’s Distinguished Associate Award, (1997); University of California’s President’s Medal, (1997); ASM Distinguished Life Membership Award, (1997); an Honorary Degree of Scientiae Doctoris, Ripon College (1997); Navy League New York Council Roosevelt Gold Medal for Science (1996); Aviation Week Group Laurels Award for National Security (1995); James O. Douglas Gold Medal Award (1990); ASM International’s Distinguished Lectureship in Materials and Society, (1989); Kent Van Horn Distinguished Alumnus Award, Case Western Reserve University (1989); Honorary Degree of Scientiae Doctoris, College of Santa Fe, (1988); Year’s Top 100 Innovations Award from Science Digest (1985); American Society for Metals, Marcus A. Grossman Young Author Award (1976); and Wesley P. Sykes Outstanding Metallurgist Award, Case Institute of Technology (1965). He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Tau Beta Pi Honorary Engineering Fraternity, Alpha Sigma Mu Honorary Metallurgical Fraternity, and the Society of Sigma Xi. He previously served on the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico and the Board of the Carrie Tingley Hospital.
NSSPI Publications:
- K.H. Ragusa, S.S. Chirayath, C.M. Marianno, F. Naqvi, S. Hecker, D. Mulyana, "Roadmap for a Sustainable Professional Pipeline: The Nuclear Security Education Program at the Center for Nuclear Security Science and Policy Initiatives (NSSPI) at Texas A&M University", INMM/ESARDA Joint Annual Meeting, 22-26 May 2023, Vienna, Austria.