Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
7/24/2015
Effective Wednesday, Dr. Don Cook has retired from his position as deputy administrator for defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, a position he served in for five years, the Department of Energy branch confirmed this week. “During his time as Deputy Administrator, Dr. Cook has led a number of accomplishments,” NNSA spokeswoman Shelley Laver said in a statement on Tuesday. “His leadership has been indispensable to ensuring the steady state of success within the weapons program. He led the development of the Uranium and Plutonium strategies with our laboratories and sites. His tireless work on this has improved the capabilities needed to meet the President’s vision for a modernized yet reduced stockpile.” In his last position, Cook was responsible for managing the U.S. nuclear security enterprise of labs and manufacturing facilities.
Cook’s previous experience included working as managing director and CEO of the Atomic Weapons Establishment in the U.K. from 2006 to 2009, after working in pulsed power sciences, microtechnologies, infrastructure, and security at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., from 1977 to 2005. “Dr. Cook strengthened collaboration with other NNSA program offices, specifically supporting Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation with their work on New START, and more recently, with their work on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference,” Laver said. “He also built a framework that advances the science-based Stockpile Stewardship Program. These efforts allow DOE to certify a safe, secure and effective deterrent without returning to underground nuclear explosive testing. It has been a privilege and honor to work with Dr. Cook and we wish him all the best in his continued success.”
Cook graduated from the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Institute of Physics (IOP).
