Los Alamos scientist tapped for national nuclear data leadership role

Position enables Kelly to shape national nuclear data research priorities and funding directions

Keegan Kelly is principal investigator of the Correlated Gamma-Neutron Array for Scattering program at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, where experiments track neutron and gamma-ray energy and angular spectra. Credit to: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos scientist Keegan Kelly has been elected co-chair of the Workshop for Applied Nuclear Data Activities (WANDA) for 2027-28. Why this matters: WANDA is a key national forum connecting nuclear data scientists with federal program managers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program and other sponsors. As co-chair, Kelly will help shape the workshop’s topics and speaker lineup — influencing discussions that can guide future research priorities and funding opportunities in applied nuclear data. More on Kelly: This DOE Early Career Award recipient recently served as guest editor for a special issue of Fusion Science and Technology focused on Nuclear Data for Fusion, which included a manuscript he co-authored on the need to modernize pulsed sphere experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — work aimed at improving nuclear data capabilities for fusion and other national security applications.

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