Bradley Wallin will lead Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s nuclear weapons programs, settling a succession that began when Kim Budil was promoted to lab director earlier this year, the design lab announced Monday.
Separately, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced that Jeff Harrell, the federal manager for the agency’s Sandia Field Office, retired in July.
Wallin, now the principal associate director for Weapons and Complex Integration, has been with Livermore for 20 years, according to a release from the lab. He was most recently the program director for Weapon Physics and Design, responsible for leading physics designs assessment and certification efforts weapons systems include the W80 cruise missile warhead, the B83 gravity bomb and the W87 intercontinental ballistic missile warhead.
Wallin has a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and bachelor’s in engineering physics from the Colorado School of Mines.
Meanwhile, Harrel is retiring after 15 years in the Department of Energy, capped by a stint at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Sandia National Laboratories. It was Harrel’s second life in public service, following a 25-year career in the Air Force, where he racked up more than 3,000 flying hours, according to an NNSA press release.
Harrel has also worked in NNSA’s Office of Secure transportation and was formerly detailed to the agency’s associate administrator for defense nuclear security.
