He will be responsible for directing the laboratory's existing programs, managing program strategies and coordinating the relationship with nonproliferation customers.
Satkowiak previously managed the materials protection, control and accounting program at both ORNL and the Oak Ridge Y-12 National Security Complex.
He started his career researching underwater acoustics that helped lead to the current generation of naval mine-hunting sonar technology at the Naval Coastal Systems Center in Panama City, Fla.
Satkowiak later was program manager and principal investigator for identifying special nuclear material composition at DOE's Office of Safeguards and Security Research in Miamisburg, Ohio.
He serves on several national and international committees focusing on the safeguarding of nuclear materials and the nonproliferation of weapons and weapons technology.
Satkowiak earned a bachelor's degree in physics and applied mathematics and a master's degree in experimental nuclear physics from Western Michigan University and a doctorate in experimental nuclear physics from the University of Notre Dame.
He has two daughters, Sara and Amy, and lives in Oak Ridge.
ORNL is a multiprogram science and technology laboratory managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.
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