Siegfried S. Hecker

American metallurgist and nuclear scientist

Siegfried S. Hecker (born October 2, 1943) is an American metallurgist and nuclear scientist. He served as Director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986 to 1997 and is now affiliated with Stanford University, where he is research professor emeritus in the Department of Management Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering, and senior fellow emeritus at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. During this time, he was also elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering (1988) for outstanding research on plutonium and the forming of materials, and for leadership in developing energy and weapons systems.

Hecker's parents came from Sarajevo, Bosnia and were moved during World War II to Tomaszew, Poland, where Hecker was born. When his father had not returned from the war at the Eastern Front, his mother remarried and settled in Rottenmann, Austria. He then spent two years as a postdoctoral appointee at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Hecker began his professional career as a senior research metallurgist with the General Motors Research Laboratories in 1970.

After Hecker's return to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, he led the laboratory's Materials Science and Technology Division and Center for Materials Science.

Hecker also acts as advisor to the Nuclear Threat Initiative board of directors and belongs to the advisory council of CRDF Global, an independent nonprofit organization that promotes international scientific and technical collaboration.

He has visited North Korea frequently in an unofficial capacity to assess the plutonium program at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center (once every year since 2004). In November 2010, Hecker visited the Yongbyon nuclear facility and reported on its advanced state. In February 2019 Hecker along with Robert L. Carlin and Elliot A. Serbin published an update to North Koreas nuclear history study saying that in 2018 North Korea "took significant steps to halt and roll back key parts of its nuclear program" and Kim Jong Un "took the extraordinary step of ending nuclear tests and missile tests, not just declaring a moratorium." in the study it also suggests the North Korea, South Korea, and the US explore cooperative efforts to demilitarize North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and convert them to civillian nuclear and space programs.

In addition to his National Academy of Engineering (NAE) membership, Dr. Hecker is a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and India Institute of Metals; fellow of the Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials Society (TMS), American Society for Metals, American Physical Society (APS), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and honorary member of the American Ceramics Society. Hecker, S. S. "The Role of the DOE Weapons Laboratories in a Changing National Security Environment: CNSS Papers No. 8, April 1988", Los Alamos National Laboratory, Center for National Security Studies United States Department of Energy, (April 1988). Hecker, S. S. "The Cold War is Over. What Now? ", Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States Department of Energy, (April 1995). Siegfried Hecker, Gian Carlo Rota. "Essays on the Future: In Honor of Nick Metropolis 1996th Edition" (2000). Fluss, M.; Tobin, J.; Schwartz, A.; Petrovtsev, A. V.; Nadykto, B. A.; Timofeeva, L. F. Hecker, S. S. & V. E. Arkhipov. "6th US Russian Pu Science Workshop Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory University of California, Livermore, California, July 14 and 15, 2006", Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, United States Department of Energy, (June 20, 2006). Hecker, Siegfried; Lee, Sean; Braun, Chaim. "North Korea's Choice: Bombs Over Electricity", National Academy of Engineering, (Summer 2010). Hecker, S. S. "Doomed to Cooperate: How American and Russian Scientists Joined Forces to Avert Some of the Greatest Post Cold War Nuclear Dangers (2016).