INMM Leadership Biographies

INMM President

STEVE ORTIZ is a Senior Member and served as Chair of the INMM Physical Protection Technical Division and a member of the Technical Program Committee of INMM from 1998 until 2004. He has also served two terms as a Member at Large of the Southwest Chapter of INMM and one year as member at large on the INMM Executive Committee.

Steve has been employed at Sandia National Laboratories for 28 years. From 1980 to 1988, he worked as a member of Technical Staff in the Nuclear Safeguards and Security Directorate of Sandia National Laboratories. In this position, he was involved with all aspects of Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials at DOE sites. From 1988 to 1990 Steve was the Technical Division Supervisor for the Satellite Integration and Test Organization in the Space Systems Department of Sandia National Laboratories. Since 1990 he has been the Manager of the Security Technology Department in the Nuclear Security Systems Center of Sandia National Laboratories. His department is responsible for developing new technology for protection of nuclear assets. He has participated as the Director or an Instructor in six International Training Courses in Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and has served as Chairman of IEEE Working Group 3.7, IEEE 692 that revised the Standard Criteria for Security Systems for Nuclear Power Generating Stations.

Steve received a B.S.E.E. from the University of New Mexico 1978 and a M.S.E.E. from the University of Texas at El Paso 1980.

INMM Vice President

SCOTT VANCE is a Senior Member and has been active in INMM since the late 1980s. Scott first became involved in INMM by participating in the Waste Management Division and the annual Spent Fuel Management Seminars. In 1997, he became Vice Chair of the Packaging and Transportation Division. He was the co-chair to the PATRAM Conference in 2001, after assisting in bringing the sponsorship of the Conference under INMM. He has served as the Packaging and Transportation Division’s associate editor for the Journal of Nuclear Materials Management for several years. Scott also serves as a Technical Program Committee representative to both the Waste Management and Packaging and Transportation Divisions. He began serving on the Membership Committee in 2000, and served as Chair of this Committee from 2002 to 2006. During this time, he actively promoted improvements to the admission process and the development of student chapters. Scott was elected Vice Chair of the Northeast Chapter in 2002 and 2003, and Chair of the Northeast Chapter in 2004 and 2005. Scott has served as Member-at-Large to the Executive Committee from 2006 – 2008. In 2006, he was awarded INMM’s Meritorious Service Award. He was elected to the office of INMM Vice-President in 2008.

Scott has been interested in nuclear materials management since undergraduate school, where he took a semester to serve as an intern at the Idaho State Senate assisting with nuclear issues. This interest continued into graduate school, where Mr. Vance was an Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Fellow. Professionally, Scott has been involved in the nuclear materials management field for 20 years. His career began as a contractor to the Department of Energy’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Scott’s work focused on regulatory analysis, development and implementation in the areas of nuclear materials management, transportation, and safeguards and security. He participated or led efforts in a variety of areas, such as the implementation of the standard disposal contract between DOE and nuclear utilities and the development of implementation plans for safeguards and security measures at a geologic repository. In 1999, Mr. Vance joined a large Washington, DC law firm, where he was a Nuclear Regulatory Specialist and assisted lawyers with the technical aspects of nuclear issues. After obtaining his Juris Doctorate degree, Scott joined the Tennessee Valley Authority, where he currently serves as a Nuclear Licensing Attorney.

Scott earned a B.S. in General Engineering, Nuclear Option from Idaho State University; a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering and a M.S. in Technology Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and a J.D. from George Mason University.

INMM Secretary

VINCENT J. DEVITO

has been a member of INMM since 1960 and has held the position of secretary since 1973. He has also served as the Public Relations Chair, and has served on various ad hoc committees. Vince received the INMM Distinguished Service award in 1984 and was made a Fellow of the Institute in 1987. In 2000 he received the Meritorious Service award for his tireless and essential service to the Institute as secretary.

Vince has been a safeguards consultant for DOE contractors since 1989, when he retired from the DOE Uranium Enrichment Plant in Piketon, Ohio. Before his retirement, he held various positions at the plant for Martin Marietta Energy Systems and Goodyear Atomic Corp. He was director of site operations and was responsible for the plant's production and maintenance divisions, as well as plant security, shift operations and emergency preparedness organizations. He also held positions as superintendent of nuclear materials control; manager, safeguards and security division; manager, production division; and vice president, business services.

Vince received a degree in business administration in 1949 from The Ohio State University.

INMM Treasurer

ROBERT U. CURL joined Argonne National Laboratory in 1963 and served as MC&A Manager at ANL-East and ANL-West until 1977. In 1977, he accepted an appointment as safeguards inspector and negotiations officer with the Euratom Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria. Following his appointment with the IAEA, Robert joined the Idaho National Laboratory as MC&A Manager. In 1989 Robert joined the Defense Low-Level Waste Management Program as technical lead for radiological performance assessment and performance assessment research projects. He subsequently held positions in the National Low-Level Waste Management Program as lead for the National Center for Low-Level/Mixed Low-Level Waste Management, the Transuranic and Mixed Waste Focus Area as the technology development lead for payload enhancement for transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project as transition lead for facilities radiological assessment, and the Voluntary Consent Order Program (RCRA closure) as the subject-matter-expert for Safety Analysis. In 2005 Robert returned to Safeguards and Security supporting Technical Security’s Office of Classification.

Robert has been a member of the INMM since 1966 and has held the position of treasurer since 1983. He also served as treasurer during 1976 and 1977. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee, Membership Committee, and Nominating Committee. He also serves as INMM Headquarters oversight. Robert became a Senior Member of the Institute in 1983, received the INMM Meritorious Service Award in 1993, and was made a Fellow of the Institute in 1995.

Members at Large

LARRY SATKOWIAK has been a member of the Institute of Nuclear Material Management since 1989 and is currently a Senior Member. During that time period he has served as both the Vice-President and President of the Central Region Chapter, authored and presented papers, and served as session chair at numerous INMM Annual Meetings and Workshops. In his role as deputy chair of the Nonproliferation and Arms Control Division, he helped organize multiple workshops focusing on nonproliferation issues.

Larry serves as the director of Global Security and Nonproliferation (GS&N) Programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). GS&N programs support a range of activities related to national security and nonproliferation, spanning from research and development activities through technology deployment and technical assessments. As Program Director for GS&N Programs, Larry is the senior program contact for ORNL’s nuclear nonproliferation programs. He is responsible for directing existing programs, managing program strategies, and coordinating customer relationships.

Larry received his B.S. degree in Physics and Applied Mathematics and his M.S. degree in Experimental Nuclear Physics from Western Michigan University, and received his Ph.D. in Experimental Nuclear Physics from the University of Notre Dame.

KEN SORENSON has 20 years experience in technical work associated with the safe and secure packaging, storage, and transportation of nuclear materials. Currently, he is the Manager of the Transportation and Materials Management Department at Sandia National Laboratories. The primary role of this department is to support the U.S. Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in developing technologies that enhance the safety, security, and efficiencies of nuclear materials transportation packages. This work encompasses structural and thermal analysis, risk assessment, testing, sabotage evaluation, regulatory analysis, and development of advanced concepts.

Ken’s earlier research activities focused on material behavior and development of a fracture mechanics design methodology for transportation applications. This work led to the publication of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) TECDOC-0717 on the methodology. In addition, Ken is also a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal; Packaging, Transport, Storage, and Security of Radioactive Material.

From October 2001 until he assumed the role of Member-at-large, Ken has been a member of INMM and the chair of the Packaging and Transportation Technical Division. In this role, Ken has represented INMM in the sponsorship of the premiere international transportation conference, PATRAM. PATRAM is held every three years and INMM is the technical institute responsible for coordinating the planning and managing the conference. This year, PATRAM 2007 will be held in Miami, Florida, Oct. 21-26, 2007.

GRACE THOMPSON is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff for the Nuclear Weapons Complex Planning and Integration Department at Sandia National Laboratories. She currently manages integration projects for the DOE/National Nuclear Security Administration involving multiple programs and locations in support of the weapons stockpile. She has been actively involved in INNM and a Member in good standing since 1998. She has served as the Southwest Chapter Secretary/Treasurer and Vice President since 1999 and assumed the role of Chapter President in 2005. She has also served on the Membership Committee since 2001 and took over as Chair in 2006. She is a 1982 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.S. in Chemistry with postgraduate work in chemical engineering, environmental engineering, and system engineering with an emphasis on threat assessment and secure networks and information systems.

MARTHA WILLIAMS has been a member of INMM since the mid-1980s and a senior member since 2000. During the 1990s, she served terms as President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee of the INMM’s Vienna Chapter. She has been a Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee of the Northeast Chapter and is currently a member of the Government Industry Liaison Committee. She has served on and participated in activities of various ANSI N-15 committees. She currently represents NRC on the ANSI-N15 Technical Standards Committee and serves as Chairperson of the ANSI-N15.8 Subcommittee.

Martha is a Senior MC&A Physical Scientist with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Acting Leader of the NRC’s MC&A Inspection Team. Although her current responsibilities are focused on reinstating the NRC MC&A inspection program at operating and decommissioning power reactors and other wet storage sites, she also has a leadership role in the MC&A program for fuel cycle facilities. She joined the NRC in 1988 as a physical scientist with responsibility for MC&A inspection and licensing of fuel cycle facilities. In 1992 she accepted the position of Safeguards Statistician in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Department of Safeguards, Division of Concepts and Planning, returning to the NRC in 2000. She was a major contributor to the 2001 Edition of the IAEA Safeguards Glossary.

Martha began her career in the nuclear industry in 1980 at Nuclear Fuel Services, Erwin, Tennessee, where she was Supervisor of the Nuclear Material Control Statistics Group. She holds BA and MS degrees in mathematics and has taught mathematics and statistics at the undergraduate level.

INMM Immediate Past President

NANCY JO NICHOLAS became a member of the INMM in 1996 and a senior member in 2002; however, she has been active in the Institute since the early 1990’s. She served as INMM Vice President from 2005-2006. She recently led the leadership development strategic planning thrust for the Institute and coordinated the development of an orientation course for new INMM leaders. She served as a Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee in 2002 and 2003 and was the chair of the Membership Committee from 1998 to 2001. She also chaired the INMM Memorial Fund and Outreach Subcommittee. Prior to 1998, she served on the Membership and Registration Committees for several years. She has provided support to the Annual Meeting and INMM Workshops by contributing technical papers and organizing and chairing sessions. She was one of 25 founding members of the INMM Southwest Regional Chapter and was a temporary member of the Northwest Regional Chapter. She is currently serving as Vice President of the Southwest Regional Chapter. Her technical interests in nuclear materials management include nonproliferation and arms control, international safeguards, as well as packaging and transportation.

In 1990 Nancy Jo joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she is currently the Nuclear Nonproliferation Division Leader. She spent time on assignment to the International Safeguards Division at DOE Headquarters and the Los Alamos office at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site.

Nancy Jo’s technical field of expertise is nondestructive assay measurements, and she has a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Albright College and a Masters degree in Nuclear Physics from George Washington University.