The Planning Committee is pleased announce that the IGED 2016 Keynote Speaker is Jill Hruby, President and Laboratories Director at Sandia National Laboratories.
Jill Hruby is the director of Sandia National Laboratories and president of Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, which operates Sandia for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Sandia has principal sites in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California, operating revenue of about $2.6 billion, and more than 10,000 employees.
In 2010, Hruby came to Sandia’s New Mexico site after 27 years at Sandia’s California location to become vice president of the Energy, Nonproliferation, and High-Consequence Security Division, and leader of Sandia’s International, Homeland, and Nuclear Security Program Management Unit.
As vice president, Hruby oversaw more than 1,300 employees and contractors and managed work in such areas as global security, energy technologies, weapon and force protection, critical asset protection, the nuclear fuel cycle, geoscience, and climate. The PMU mission encompassed nonproliferation and arms control; securing and safeguarding nuclear weapons and nuclear materials; protecting critical U.S. government assets and installations; ensuring the resilience of physical and cyber infrastructures; and reducing the risks of terrorist threats and catastrophic events.
Hruby joined Sandia in 1983 and did research in thermal and fluid sciences, solar energy, and nuclear weapon components. During her career, she has been engaged in nanoscience research, hydrogen storage, mechanical component design, thermal analysis and microfluidics.
She earned her first management appointment in 1989 and held technical leadership positions at the California lab in polymer and electrochemical technologies, materials synthesis, and inorganic and physical chemistry for eight years. She then served as senior manager in organizations responsible for weapon components, micro-technologies, and materials processing.
Hruby was named a technical director in 2003, first leading the Materials and Engineering Sciences Center and its work in hydrogen science and engineering and microsystem science and fabrication. In 2005 Jill became director of the Homeland Security and Defense Systems Center, fostering Sandia work in systems analysis, applied research, and systems engineering, primarily for homeland security and nuclear weapons missions.
Hruby earned her bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and her master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley, both in mechanical engineering. She has authored numerous publications, holds three patents in microfabrication and won an R&D 100 Award in solid-state radiation detection. She serves on the Threat Reduction Advisory Committee for the Department of Defense, and the Board of Chemical Science and Technology for the National Academy of Sciences. She has served on several university advisory boards, on community boards in Livermore and Albuquerque and as the campus executive at Georgia Institute of Technology.
