Siegfried S. Hecker

Siegfried Hecker is director emeritus at the Los Alamos National Laboratory where he spent 34 years in positions ranging from a summer graduate student to a postdoctoral fellow, director of the Center of Materials Science, director of the laboratory and senior fellow. He joined Stanford University in 2005 where he was a senior fellow at the Center of International Security and Cooperation, including serving as co-director for six years, and professor (research) in the Department of Management Science and Engineering. After retiring from Stanford University in August 2022, he joined the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Texas A&M University as professor of practice and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey as distinguished professor of practice. Dr. Hecker received B.S., M.S. and PhD degrees in metallurgy and materials science from Case Western Reserve University and its predecessor, Case Institute of Technology.

Among other awards, Hecker received the Presidential Enrico Fermi Award (2009), the Department of Energy’s E. O. Lawrence Award (1984) and the 2018 American Association of Engineering Societies National Engineering Award. He also received the American Nuclear Society Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal in 2017 (with Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar). 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 January 2023.