Houston “Terry” Hawkins, Senior Fellow/ Scientist, Principal Associate Directorate for Global Security, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Joins the ACD Board of Directors
The American Center for Democracy is pleased to announce that Houston T. “Terry” Hawkins, Senior Fellow/Senior Scientist, Principal Associate Directorate for Global Security, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, New Mexico, has joined the ACD Board of Directors.
Hawkins’ experience and authority contribute to ACD’s efforts to bridge the significant knowledge-gaps of our policy makers in the public and private sectors on U.S. cyberspace vulnerabilities, and to encourage partnerships to develop pragmatic solutions to enhance the security and integrity of our critical infrastructure including the electric grid, communication and transportation systems, and the financial sector.
Houston T. “Terry” Hawkins is a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Senior Fellow and currently is the Chief Scientist, Principle Associate Directorate for Global Security (PADGS/LANL). He concurrently serves on the Board of Directors for the American Center for Democracy; as a Distinguished Research Fellow with the Institute of Physical Science, McLean, VA; and an advisor for the Marshall Institute for Interdisciplinary Research (MIIR), Huntington, WV. Terry previously was the Director of the LANL Department of Defense Programs in the Office of the Associate Director for Threat Reduction.
Terry has provided exemplary leadership during situations involving significant technical challenges and dynamic change. Throughout his career, Terry has led major technical programs aimed at assessing, detecting, preventing and reversing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the use of those weapons by international terrorists. This leadership included his exemplary management of the Nonproliferation and International Security Division (NIS) at Los Alamos. In five years, he doubled the NIS programmatic portfolio ($150M to $270M), led the construction of the new NIS Center, had five R&D 100 Awards, received two environmental awards, a LANL Distinguished Business Management Award, five consecutive “outstanding” ratings from external review panels, best-of-class electrical safety awards, and a diversity award. He also established a successful scholarship program using royalties that accrued to NIS.
As an internationally recognized expert on modern terrorism particularly terrorism involving the potential use of weapons of mass destruction, Terry served on the Presidential Panel on National Infrastructure Protection. He also has given invited lectures worldwide on this topic. For his efforts, he received the Chief Justice Earl Warren Medallion, the Aviation Week & Space Technology 2000 Laurel Award, and the Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation Medallion.
Prior to his coming to Los Alamos, Col. (RET) Hawkins, had served 25 years in the US Air Force, In that capacity he performed research on advanced ablative materials, lead a reconnaissance avionics unit in Southeast Asia, performed thousands of radiochemical analyses of nuclear debris, developed new nuclear forensic technologies and analytic methods, defined foreign nuclear activities and threats, and helped implement arms control verification methods. Terry was the leader of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Nuclear Energy Division where he also served on the Joint Atomic Energy Intelligence Committee and co-chaired the DOD Hard Target Kill Committee. He subsequently served as the Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Air Force Nuclear Matters. In this capacity, he advised the Secretary of Defense on decisions pertaining to USAF nuclear weaponry, prepared the SecDef position paper on nuclear winter, and lead foreign assistance programs pertaining to hardening against nuclear effects. Finally, he served as the Director of Threat Reduction/Arms Control, Defense Nuclear Agency.
Terry has received numerous awards and recognition for his work including two Defense Superior Service Medals, the Legion of Merit, two Air Force Superior Service Medals, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and numerous service medals, including the Humanitarian Service Medal, the Korean Defense Medal and the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm. He holds patents in graphite fiber reinforcements and super hard-structures.
Terry is a Distinguished Military Graduate of Clemson University (BSChem) and a graduate of the Air Force Nuclear Research Officer Program, the McCrone Institute (Applied Microscopy), the Air War College, the National Defense University and the LaSalle Extension University School of Law. He is a Col. (RET)
CONTACT:
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, Director
American Center for Democracy
Tel:212-399-4246
email ehrenfeld@acdemocracy.org