Senate Confirms Texas A&M Engineer For Key Nuclear Safety Post

For much of his career, Texas A&M University nuclear engineer Marvin L. Adams has been considered one of the nation’s foremost experts on nuclear security outside of the federal government.

Now he’s on the inside.

Congress on Wednesday confirmed Adams’ appointment by President Joe Biden to serve as deputy administrator for defense programs within the Department of Energy.

Adams will oversee federal programs that ensure the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

He will help manage a $16 billion budget in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA.) The agency oversees for the design, maintenance, assessment, manufacturing and dismantlement of all U.S. nuclear warheads and related programs that develop and maintain all the associated science, engineering, technology, supply-chain and manufacturing capabilities.

Adams’ position is one of four top jobs in the NNSA that require Senate approval.

“I look forward to working with the outstanding NNSA team––the federal workforce and the workforce at the laboratories, plants, and sites––to deliver our unique, essential contributions to U.S. national security,” Adams said Thursday.

Adams has been the HTRI Professor of Nuclear Engineering, a Regents Fellow and the director of National Laboratories Mission Support for The Texas A&M University System. He started 30 years ago at the flagship in College Station.

His research has advanced the nation’s ability to use complex computer algorithms to help assess weapons’ reliability while explosive nuclear testing is banned.

As an educator, Adams has taught generations of engineers, including many who have gone on to careers at the three national nuclear security laboratories — Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

Adams also has served for decades in advisory roles at the nation’s nuclear labs.

“I am grateful to Texas A&M for allowing me to pursue national-service opportunities during my three decades here,” Adams said.

Before joining the Texas A&M faculty, Adams was a physicist at Lawrence Livermore from 1986 to 1992. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan and his B.S. in nuclear engineering from Mississippi State University.

Last fall Biden named Adams among 30 distinguished Americans to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a group from outside the government that he has to resign from now.

Read more about Adam’s career here: https://today.tamu.edu/2021/10/04/texas-am-engineer-devotes-career-to-nuclear-deterrence/