Kathryn A. McCarthy joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory after three years as vice president for science and technology and laboratory director for the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. She previously held a variety of engineering and leadership roles at Idaho National Laboratory, including director of domestic programs in its Nuclear Science and Technology Directorate, director of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Technical Integration Office, and national technical director for the Systems Analysis Campaign for the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy’s Fuel Cycle R&D Program. Dr. McCarthy began her career in fusion technology with a focus on liquid metal blanket designs. She was a participant

in the US DOE US-USSR Young Scientist program, which included working at the Efremov Institute in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the Latvian Academy of Sciences in Riga, and the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. Dr. McCarthy was elected to the NAE in 2019 for leadership in research and data analysis in support of licensing extensions for light water nuclear reactors. She has received numerous awards and recognitions including two American Nuclear Society (ANS) presidential citations, the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award (2022), the ITER US Home Team Leadership Award (1996), and the David Rose Award for Excellence in Fusion Engineering (1994). She served on the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (1999–2013) and the US ITER Technical Advisory Committee (2010–13) and is an ANS fellow. Dr. McCarthy earned her BS from the University of Arizona and her MS and PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, all in nuclear engineering.