MAE Seminar: Basil Hassan

Engineering National Security at Sandia National Laboratories

Abstract:

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program national laboratory run for the United States Department of Energy. While Sandia’s roots hail from the Manhattan Project of the 1940’s, the Laboratories have evolved into providing support for a wide variety of national security and energy related areas of interest to the Nation. This talk will review Sandia’s history and highlight the role that Sandia plays in the development of capabilities that address a variety of engineering applications of national importance, including energy, homeland security, and defense.  The talk will highlight research investment areas in mechanical and aerospace engineering.  Additionally, mechanisms where Sandia staff typically collaborate with university partners, including potential opportunities for graduate students, will be discussed.

Dr. Hassan is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1988, his master’s degree in 1990, and his Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1993. He is the Director of the Engineering Sciences Center, where he is responsible for leading advances in S&T capabilities by integrating theory, computational simulation, and experimental discovery and validation across length and time scales to assess complex physical phenomena and systems supporting Sandia’s national security mission.  Previously, he served as Director of the Chief Research Office and Deputy Chief Research Officer, where he led Sandia’s research strategy development, including the execution of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, and oversaw Sandia’s external partnership and technology transfer programs. Since joining Sandia in 1993, Dr. Hassan has worked in and managed all phases of research, development, and applications work, that help fuel Sandia’s national security mission. He supported NASA in determining the cause of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003 and was part of the team that supported shutdown the Deepwater Horizon oil well after the explosion and spill in 2010.

Dr. Hassan is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and served the Institute President (2020-2022). He served on several national review boards for the National Academies, NASA, DARPA, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the National Science Foundation, and has been an external member of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center since 2004. Dr. Hassan chairs the Development Committee of the North Carolina State Engineering Foundation Board and serves on the Chancellor’s Board of Visitors.  He was the 2008 recipient of the AIAA Sustained Service Award and a 2017 recipient of NCSU’s Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award.