Dunzik-Gougar leads as new ANS president

June 11, 2020, 2:06PMANS News

Dunzik-Gougar

Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar is the 66th president of the American Nuclear Society. On June 11, during a meeting of the Board of Directors that—like the rest of the 2020 ANS Annual Meeting—was held virtually, the duties of president were officially transferred from Marilyn Kray to Dunzik-Gougar, who will serve a one-year term as president. Kray will remain on the Board of Directors for one year as immediate past president.

Dunzik-Gougar, an ANS member since 1994, will continue to lead ANS on the course established by ANS Change Plan 2020 during Kray’s term as president. Dunzik-Gougar was serving as vice president/president-elect when the Change Plan was approved by the Board in November 2019, and newly elected Vice President/President-Elect Steve Nesbit was a member of the Board. The ANS Executive Committee, which now includes Dunzik-Gougar, Kray, Nesbit, Treasurer W. A. "Art" Wharton III, and Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy, will confidently lead a more streamlined ANS that is prepared to meet its members’ needs now and in the future.

Dunzik-Gougar holds both a master’s degree in environmental engineering and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Penn State University. She is now associate dean of the College of Science and Engineering and associate professor of nuclear engineering at Idaho State University, and she previously served as the acting chair of ISU’s Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics Department. She is also the reactor administrator for ISU’s AGN-201 reactor and an NRC-licensed reactor operator and senior reactor operator.

ANS has benefited from Dunzik-Gougar’s contributions since she first joined the Society. While serving as the student member of the Board in the 1990s, Dunzik-Gougar helped write the bylaws that allowed the student member of the Board to have a vote and be elected. She has been deeply involved in ANS outreach and education programs, including teacher workshops, for many years, and received the Landis Public Communication and Education Award in 2014.

In addition to taking an active role in several ANS committees and professional divisions, Dunzik-Gougar is also an active member of the ANS Idaho Local Section and serves as faculty advisor for the ANS Idaho State University Student Section.

Idaho Falls, Idaho, is home to Dunzik-Gougar and her husband and fellow nuclear engineer Hans Gougar. Look for a profile of Dunzik-Gougar and the path that led to her ANS presidency in the July issue of Nuclear News.


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