Director

Professor, Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan

Consortium Director, Consortium for Verification Technology

M.S. Nuclear Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy, 1997

Ph.D. Nuclear Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy, 2001

Professor Sara Pozzi earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy in 1997 and 2001, respectively.  She is a Professor and Graduate Program Chair in the Department of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan where she established and is the leader of the Detection for Nuclear Nonproliferation Group (DNNG). Her research interests include the development of new methods for nuclear materials detection, identification, and characterization for nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and national security programs.

Professor Pozzi is the founding Director of the Consortium for Verification Technology (CVT), a large consortium of 12 universities and 9 national laboratories working together to develop new technologies needed for nuclear treaty verification. In this capacity, she directs the work of 25 faculty members and over 120 students engaged in research projects within the CVT. The CVT is funded by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration.

Professor Pozzi is the co-author of the Monte Carlo code MCNPX-PoliMi, which is being used at over 50 institutions world-wide. Her publication record includes over 350 papers in journals and international conference proceedings. She was invited to give over 70 seminars, both nationally and internationally. As the DNNG leader, she advises 15 doctoral students, many undergraduate students, and several research staff members. She is a senior member of the IEEE and the Institute for Nuclear Materials Management, and a member of the American Nuclear Society. She held several leadership roles in these societies, including member of the IEEE Radiation Instrumentation Technical Committee (RITC) and RITC Awards Chairperson for many years. She is currently the IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Co-chair for Atlanta, 2017, and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.

To date, Professor Pozzi has graduated 15 PhD and many Masters students, as chair or co-chair, with many more in the pipeline. She is the recipient of many awards, including the 2006 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Early Career Award, 2006 Department of Energy, Office of Science, Outstanding Mentor Award, 2012 INMM Edway R. Johnson Meritorious Service Award, and the 2012 UM Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department, Outstanding Achievement Award. In 2017, she was elected Fellow of the American Nuclear Society.