Lon Dawson

Manager, Energy Security

As manager of the Energy Security department in the Risk and Reliability Analysis group at Sandia National Laboratories, Lon Dawson combines Sandia’s experience in nuclear power and cyber security into a program that designs and implements cyber security for nuclear facilities. This effort begins with comprehensive research and development, and includes interaction with a broad array of stakeholders, including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the international nuclear power industry, and other national laboratories.

Lon and his team also provide cyber security expertise to U.S. DOE International Nuclear Security (INS, NA-211) worldwide efforts. He has personally developed and presented methods to harden nuclear facilities and safeguard equipment against attacks, as has authored several papers on a maturity-model approach to assessing and improving national-level nuclear cyber security capability.

In previous positions, Lon led Sandia’s efforts to develop a methodology for evaluating and mitigating risks to critical infrastructure. This included leading a team to evaluate cyber security risks to critical infrastructure facilities in partner nations. 

Lon holds an M.S. in Chemical Engineering and has received advanced training in Naval Nuclear Power Engineering and Operations.