Vicki Chavez

R&D S&E, Computer Science

Vicki Chavez is a Chemical Engineer & Computer Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories’ Weapons and Force Protection Center. Vicki has been at Sandia since 2006 working in the Contraband Detection Department and High Consequence Robotics Department as an explosives detection subject matter expert, access control subject matter expert and a vulnerability assessment analyst.

For sixteen years Vicki has leveraged her expertise in explosives detection to teach training courses for response teams on synthesis and detection of homemade explosives. Vicki has also been an instructor for the High Explosive (HE), Radiation and Metal Detection training module as well as a subgroup leader for three International Training Courses (ITC). This course, as part of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), provides training for participants from around the world on the physical protection of nuclear materials and nuclear facilities. For six years Vicki has worked on projects to develop explosives detection standards and test articles, and conduct vulnerability analysis on explosive threat scenarios for the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).

Currently, Vicki teams with members from the Weapon and Force Protection Center in an effort to support the Associate administrator for Defense Nuclear Security (NA-70) and the congressionally mandated Physical Security Center of Excellence (PSCOE) initiative. Project work includes condition analysis reviews, development of requirements, design of entry control facilities (ECF) at NNSA facilities, and throughput modeling for ECF design.

Vicki holds two M.S. degrees, one in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University (2009) with a focus on mesoporous thin film materials, this work has been published in a peer reviewed journal; and the other M.S. degree in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology (2018) with a focus on computer vision and machine learning. Vicki earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico (2008)