11/23/2009 Colloquium - Warren F. “Pete” Miller, Jr

Warren F. “Pete” Miller, Jr Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy

Event Info

Title:  DOE Nuclear Energy Programs: The Long and the Short/the Far and the Near

Date: Nov 23, 2009
Location: 3105 Etcheverry Hall
Time: 4-5pm

Abstract

Dr. Miller will discuss the past, present and future of nuclear energy in the United States. Specifically, Dr. Miller will highlight the goals of the Department's Office of Nuclear Energy, challenges the nuclear energy industry faces and the means of overcoming these roadblocks and securing nuclear energy's place as a legitimate resource in the Nation's future energy portfolio.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Warren F. Miller was nominated by President Barack Obama as the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy in June of 2009, and confirmed by the Senate in August. As Assistant Secretary, Dr. Miller is responsible for all programs and activities of the Office of Nuclear Energy.

Before becoming Assistant Secretary, Dr. Miller was a Research Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Associate Director of the Nuclear Security Science and Policy Institute at Texas A&M University.

A native of Chicago, Dr. Miller is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. He served in Vietnam where he earned a U.S. Army Bronze Star and a Commendation Medal.

After his military service he received a PhD in nuclear engineering from Northwestern University. After two years as an assistant professor there, he began his career at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico. His first research interest was in the area of Reactor and Transport Theory. Over the course of his 27-year career at LANL, Dr. Miller held a variety of leadership positions, including Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Programs, as well as for Physics and Mathematics. As Associate Lab Director, he supervised the work of 2000 scientists. He also served as Senior Research Advisor, with the responsibility of deciding which research projects to pursue, recruiting the talent to pursue them, and providing the facilities to enable success.

Dr. Miller is the author of many research papers and journal articles, including, with a colleague, the book Computational Methods of Neutron Transport, published in 1984, which became a standard textbook for engineering students around the world.

Dr. Miller was elected as a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society in 1982, and to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 1996.