PPPL: Experienced leader named head of PPPL Engineering

Michael Ford, a veteran of the nuclear U.S. Navy and a leader with a doctorate in engineering and public policy, has been named Associate Laboratory Director for Engineering at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Steve Cowley, Laboratory Director, and Craig Ferguson, PPPL deputy director of operations and chief operating officer, announced today, Sept. 20.

Ford, who will begin in November, is the Strategy Development Director for the Energy and Global Security (EGS) Directorate at the Argonne National Laboratory, another DOE national laboratory. He will lead an enterprise of more than 200 staff members whose work makes the Lab’s experiments possible. He replaces Craig Burkhart, who has been heading the department on an interim basis until a replacement could be found.

“Mike is a high-caliber engineer with vast experience leading large technical groups and in strategic optimization,” Cowley and Ferguson said. “We are extremely fortunate he is joining our team, when we are preparing to restart large-scale fusion projects and expand our mission to low-temperature plasma applications to help a variety of industries. He is exactly the right professional we need.”

“I look forward to joining the outstanding PPPL team,” Ford said. “This is a critical time for the nation and the world as we look to transition from a fossil fuel-based energy system to one that is cleaner and more sustainable. Fusion energy will be a key component of that system and I am confident that PPPL will be at the forefront of the discovery and invention needed to make it a reality. I am excited to be a part of that journey.”

Cowley and Ferguson praised Burkhart, who as deputy director for the Technology Innovation Directorate at the DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, agreed to an interim appointment in August 2020 while the Lab commenced a nationwide search. “We can’t thank Craig enough,” they said. “Craig is an outstanding leader and I am grateful we were able to have his services.”

Ford is active in energy, engineering risk, and environmental policy research. He recently led Phase I of the National Demonstration Reactor Siting Study supporting the National Reactor Innovation Center and is a committee member on the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Study “Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States.” He has ongoing research collaborations with the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focusing on energy system transition alternatives and the development of microreactors.

Prior to joining Argonne, Ford held research positions at the Harvard University Center for the Environment and at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. His research at Harvard emphasized advanced reactor research and development in support of energy system decarbonization. He also consulted in energy, environment, and national security policy supporting diverse organizations that included a startup nuclear energy company, the Clean Air Task Force, and the Nuclear Innovation Alliance.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cornell College and a master of science degree in engineering (engineering management) from The Catholic University of America. He earned his Ph.D. in engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, where he conducted research in the nuclear energy and the environment, with a focus on advanced reactor technology development and proliferation risk. His research has been published in journals such as Nature Energy, Energy Policy, and Risk Analysis.

Ford is a past Fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies Seminar XXI Program, which focuses on national security and international affairs, and is a graduate of the U.S. Joint Forces Staff College. Before his transition to energy research and development, Ford served a career as an officer in the U.S. Navy with specialties in nuclear engineering, resource management, and operations analysis. Retired from the Navy with the rank of Captain, he commanded the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) and the guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin (DDG 89) and deployed to Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom as the USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group Air Defense Commander.

A nuclear operator with decades of light water reactor plant operations experience, he served across a range of complex engineering billets during his active-duty career, from fleet engineering inspector to lead nuclear engineer aboard USS Nimitz. His Nimitz experience involved leadership of an engineering staff of more than 450 responsible for the operation and maintenance of two small modular nuclear reactor plants. He has held senior finance and resource management positions in the U.S. Navy and U.S Joint Staffs, serving for more than seven years in the Pentagon. While there, he developed standards for new warfare systems development and helped lead the Navy Quadrennial Defense Review process.

Ford is married to Commander (Ret.) Noreen Hagerty-Ford, JAGC, USN, who served as an attorney in the U.S. Navy. She is a New Jersey native and earned business and law degrees from Seton Hall University.