Kathryn Huff, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy

Dr. Kathryn D. Huff was most recently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she led the Advanced Reactors and Fuel Cycles Research Group and was a Blue Waters Assistant Professor with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

Dr. Huff received her Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013, and a B.A. in Physics from the University of Chicago.

Her research includes modeling and simulation of advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycles.

She has been an active member of the American Nuclear Society, Chair of the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Policy Division, a past chair of the Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division, and a recipient of both the Young Member Excellence and Mary Jane Oestmann Professional Women’s Achievement awards.

Through leadership within Software Carpentry, SciPy, the Hacker Within, and the Journal of Open Source Software, she has also advocated for best practices in open, reproducible scientific computing.

Before her faculty appointment, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in both the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium and the Berkeley Institute for Data Science at the University of California-Berkeley.

From Twitter . . .

05/10/21 at 10:30 AM Eastern – via: https://twitter.com/katyhuff

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“I’m thrilled to finally share that today is my 1st day in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy (@Energy @GovNuclear)

I’m joining as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (NE2). I will also serve as its Acting Assistant Secretary (Acting @DOE_NE1).

I expect DOE will be sharing a press release shortly, but I’ve just been sworn in officially and I know many of you have now heard the good news, so it’s time for twitter to hear it from me!

I’m honored that the Biden-Harris administration has called me to serve as part of @GovNuclear during a crucial time in humanity’s endeavors toward sustainability, re-imagination of our energy infrastructure, and centering of environmental & energy justice in technology policy.

Taking an extended, unpaid leave of absence from my beloved faculty job (@illinoisNPRE @uofigrainger) was a big decision, but I had lots of support! I’m particularly grateful to @gonuke, @munkium, @deniadjokic, my husband, family (@Harold_Huff), colleagues, friends, and students.

In this position, I hope to work across institutional and other barriers, listen to many voices, strive boldly, and serve responsibly.

To kick it all off, I hope to learn more of what you can teach me! So, #nuclear and #energytwitter, I have three questions for you:

(1) Lots of great organizations & people have recently published recommendations for nuclear & energy policy. Is there anything in particular you think I should read, hear, or watch?

(2) What, specifically, would YOU like to see (or not see!) from @GovNuclear this year?

(3) In these next years, you can rely on me to listen to your voices while I try to do the best job I possibly can. Can I rely on you to keep openly sharing your ideas, expertise, wisdom, questions, challenges, hopes, and especially your constructive criticisms with me?

Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/katyhuff/status/1391773175772585984

<end Twitter thread>

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced additional Biden-Harris Administration appointees that have joined the team to help build a more prosperous and equitable clean energy future for the American people.

“During the first 100 days of this Administration, the DOE team has been working quickly and urgently to deliver on President Biden’s bold climate and clean energy goals—and these latest additions bring even more muscle to our efforts,” said Chief of Staff Tarak Shah.

“We’re thrilled to have their talent and expertise in our ranks as we continue to advance innovative, equitable clean energy solutions that will create millions of good-paying jobs and launch every American worker and community into a greener future.”

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