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Director

Howard HallHoward Hall, PhD
Director of the UT Institute for Nuclear Security
Professor of Nuclear Security

Contact information:
Howard.Hall@utk.edu
+1 (865) 974-2525

Howard Hall is the director of the Institute for Nuclear Security. He serves on the faculty of both the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the Bredesen Center For Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education. Hall is also a Senior Fellow in Global Security Policy at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, where he directs the Baker Center’s Global Security Programs.

Hall’s research interests include:

  • Nuclear forensics, particularly developing faster and more reliable radioanalytical processes, and developing a better understanding of the physical, chemical, and nuclear processes underlying nuclear forensics for reducing uncertainty in the interpretation of forensic data.
  • Nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry, novel separation methods, the evolution of trace material signatures, isotope production and purification research, and physical/chemical properties of isotopes.
  • Radiation detection and measurement as applied to security-relevant needs, particularly the performance of “systems of systems” against radioactive threats.
  • Nuclear security policy in the interface between technology, policy and legal frameworks, including treaty verification and arms control, counterterrorism, and nuclear nonproliferation.

Hall received his PhD in Nuclear and Radiochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989; and his BS in Chemistry from the College of Charleston in 1985.

Prior to joining UT, Hall spent more than twenty years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he led major scientific and operational missions in nuclear and homeland security. During his tenure at LLNL, Hall led efforts supporting US Government programs in nuclear security applications, aviation safety and security, nuclear threat detection, and nuclear emergency response.

Hall is a member of the American Nuclear Society, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Society for Engineering Education, and the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, and he is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.