National security laboratory selects first woman as director

ALBUQUERQUE >> The largest U.S. national security research and development laboratory is poised to have a woman run its operations for the first time.

Jill Hruby will become the president and director of Sandia National Laboratories next month.

"Isn't it great?" Hruby said at a news conference to announce her appointment. "To be able to break the glass ceiling here is a great thing. I'm proud to be here."

Hruby has worked at Sandia Labs at its sites in California and New Mexico for 32 years. She's been in management positions since 1989, and senior management since 1997.

Since 2010, she has worked as vice president of the Energy, Nonproliferation and High-Consequence Security Division and as leader of Sandia's International, Homeland and National Security Program Management.

A mechanical engineer with degrees from Purdue University and the University of California at Berkeley, Hruby said she never imagined climbing to the top echelon.

"In my wildest dreams I didn't expect this to happen," she said. "But much to my surprise, here I am."

Hruby said science and engineering are fields traditionally dominated by men, with women even today only accounting for about 20 percent of that sector of the workforce. But that's changing, she said.

"It's an environment that has to be created, and Sandia started creating that environment a long time ago," Hruby said.

Hruby will succeed Paul Hommert, who has led the lab since 2010.

Rick Ambrose, chair of the board of directors for Sandia Corp., which operates the lab for the National Nuclear Security Agency, said Hruby was chosen from a field of 40 candidates.

"Jill prevailed through a very competitive process and impressed all of us," Ambrose said.

Hommert said Hruby has worked as an integral part of Sandia's executive team in Albuquerque since he became lab leader in 2010.

"She's been involved in all the major discussions here during a period of some turbulence," Hommert said, referring to Sandia's budget challenges in recent years as Congress haggles over the federal deficit. "She will bring her own energy and vision to take the lab forward.

According to Sandia, Hruby will be the first woman to lead any of the three national security labs — Sandia, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories — under the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Hruby's appointment was announced to the Sandia workforce this morning by Ambrose, who is also the executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Sandia Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp..

"Leading Sandia is a tremendous responsibility because of its importance to the security of our nation and the phenomenal engineering and scientific talent here," Hruby said in a news release earlier today. "I embrace the opportunity to maintain the U.S. nuclear deterrent and lead Sandia in solving the difficult security challenges we face as a nation. I'm proud to be the first woman to lead an NNSA laboratory, but mostly I'm proud to represent the people and work of this great lab.

"Paul is leaving Sandia with the necessary fundamental elements in place, and it's personally gratifying to follow such a dedicated, visionary leader. I've assured him, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy that we will continue to deliver on our weapons Life Extension Programs on schedule and on budget. We also will build on his recent efforts to strategically advance our broad national security contributions, strengthen our basic research and expand the transfer of Sandia innovations to the U.S. economy."

Hommert called Hruby the "ideal national lab director" and praised the board for selecting her.

"Jill is a person of tremendous talent, someone who will make sure the labs are ready for expanded roles with a wide variety of new strategic customers. We have a tradition of delivering with excellence on our national security commitments, and there is no one more qualified than Jill to lead those efforts," Hommert said in the release.

Hruby joined the technical staff at Sandia's California laboratory in January 1983, working in thermal and fluid sciences, solar energy research and nuclear weapon component research and development. During her career, she also has done research in nanoscience, hydrogen storage, mechanical-component design 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.

Beginning in 1997, Hruby served as a senior manager in organizations responsible for weapon components, micro-technologies and materials processing. She was named a technical director in 2003. For the next seven years at Sandia's California site, Hruby led, first, the Materials and Engineering Sciences Center and its work in hydrogen science and engineering and micro- and nanosystem science and fabrication, and then, 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 came to Sandia's New Mexico site in 2010 as vice president of the Energy, Nonproliferation and High Consequence Security Division and of the International, Homeland Security and Nuclear Security Program Management Unit. In that capacity, she was responsible for more than 1,300 Sandia employees in such diverse areas as nuclear security and nonproliferation technologies; chemical and biological defense and security; homeland security and counterterrorism; and energy technologies.

A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Hruby earned a bachelor's degree from Purdue University and her master's from the University of California at Berkeley, both in mechanical engineering. She has authored numerous technical publications, holds three patents in microfabrication and won an R&D 100 Award in solid-state radiation detection. She currently 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 the Georgia Institute of Technology.