Susan Pepper

Susan Pepper is the Chair of the Nonproliferation & National Security Department (NNS). NNS carries out research and development of radiation detectors, provides technical support and training to international organizations and other countries, builds prototype systems, and provides expert radiological assistance to further U.S. government initiatives and policies in nuclear materials safeguards and security, arms control treaty verification, nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, material protection, control and accountability initiatives for nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, and related national security areas.

After living in Vienna for four years, she returned to Brookhaven to head the International Safeguards Project Office (ISPO), a position she held for more than a decade. In this capacity, Pepper worked extensively with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to provide its Department of Safeguards with the tools it needs to track nuclear material under the terms of the Nonproliferation Treaty. She is credited with creating an internship program in the IAEA Department of Safeguards to recruit students or recent graduates to work side by side with more senior staff.  
 
Pepper continued to manage ISPO until being named deputy department chair in September 2010, and then interim chair in January 2015.