Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS-2022) Plenary SPeaker

Dr. Jeff Waksman

Program Manager

Strategic Capabilities Office

Dr. Jeff Waksman is a Program Manager at the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) where he leads Project Pele (mobile nuclear reactor) and Project TRISO (encapsulated nuclear fuel). As part of this role, in addition to direct program management, he aids coordination on nuclear energy programs and related policy development across the interagency.

Before arriving at SCO, he worked for NASA as a Senior Policy Adviser, where he advised on policy and technical issues while also serving as the first Executive Secretary/Designed Federal Officer of the National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group.

Prior to his federal service, he worked in the private sector for IBM, where he was a staff scientist working on advanced semiconductor technology such as reactive ion etching, III-V materials, quantum computing, and heterogeneous integration. He also performed physics research prior to this at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and at the Princeton Plasma Physical Laboratory.

Dr. Jeff Waksman holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering and a Master of Science in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Physics from Columbia University.