Douglas Osborn

R&D S&E, Nuclear Engineering

Having worked at Sandia National Laboratories for more than 17 years, Doug Osborn has led projects and/or served as the technical point of contact for various nuclear safety and security efforts across a diverse set of domestic and international entities. For 30 years, Doug has pursued his passion for nuclear engineering with a career foundation based on educational, research, and operational experiences, starting from his service in the U.S. Navy through leading advancements in nuclear safety and uncertainty analysis, and leading developments in an integrated approach to nuclear security and safety. In response to the challenges associated with ensuring U.S. energy security (in part through advancements in nuclear power) and maintaining our nation’s competitive edge on the global nuclear market, Doug has led efforts to develop an approach for integrating nuclear safety and security that will achieve a cost-effective, dynamic assessment framework for evaluating threats.

Doug currently serves as the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program’s physical security pathway lead.  In this leadership position, he has built a team of world-renowned nuclear security experts to consider otherwise-unknown issues with domestic nuclear power.  Through engagements and feedback from the U.S. nuclear power industry’s physical security community, this effort is helping address physical security issues through novel advancements across many disciplines (i.e., risk, sensors, barriers, response force, strategies, and modeling/simulation to name a few) and by leveraging a diverse and complimentary set of DOE experts to help realize an optimized approach to nuclear security. 

Additionally, Doug serves as the DOE Laboratory lead for multiple initiatives, including sabotage mitigation and engaging with the U.S. civilian nuclear power community for the DOE/NNSA Office of International Nuclear Security (INS).  Through INS, Doug leads complex, multi-DOE Lab teams, and works with multiple levels of U.S. Government management within various national programs. It is with understanding the needs of both domestic and international nuclear security that he has been able to leverage research from multiple DOE programs to provide complimentary insights for nuclear security, and especially in the area of nuclear security risk. Through U.S. nuclear industry engagements, broad experiences within DOE, and collaborations with multiple DOE Labs, Doug has helped to form a working community to address long-term technical issues currently existing within the nuclear security regime. 

Doug has earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.S. and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering at Ohio State University.