The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has promoted Huban Gowadia to principal associate director of global security, where she will lead the California nuclear weapons facility’s nonproliferation and nuclear counterterrorism programs.
Livermore’s Global Security Security Principal Directorate also includes the Department of Energy’s programs to counter chemical, biological, and explosive threats. The directorate employs about 800 people and has a roughly $550 million annual budget.
The lab announced Gowadia’s promotion in a press release last week, officially placing her among Livermore’s four principal associate directors. Gowadia replaces Bruce Warner, who according to his LinkedIn profile retired in October.
Gowadia was most recently deputy principal associate director for programs at Livermore’s National Ignition Facility and Photon Science directorate, according to her LinkedIn profile. She joined the lab in that capacity in 2018 after a two-year stint at the Transportation Security Administration. Prior to that, she spent six years at the administration’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, including four years as director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. That followed a one-year stint at the Pentagon and an earlier six-year stay at Homeland Security.
Gowadia has a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama.
