Sara Pozzi

Additional Titles

• Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, College of Engineering
• Director, Consortium for Monitoring, Technology, and Verification
• Director, Consortium for Verification Technology

Professor Sara Pozzi earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy in 1997 and 2001, respectively. She is a Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences and a Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan (UM). Her research interests include the development of new methods for nuclear materials detection, identification, and characterization for nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and national security programs. Prior to her positions at UM, she was a staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 2002 to 2007.

Professor Pozzi is the founding Director of the Consortium for Verification Technology (CVT) 2014-2019 and the Consortium for Monitoring, Technology, and Verification (MTV) 2019-2024, two large consortia of multiple universities and national laboratories working together to develop new technologies needed for nuclear treaty verification. In this capacity, she directs the work of 25 faculty members and over 250 students engaged in research projects within the consortium.

Professor Pozzi’s research interests include the study of nuclear fission and radiation imaging for nuclear materials detection, identification, and characterization. The overarching topics include nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and national security. In her fission work, she and her students study the neutron and gamma ray emissions from induced and spontaneous fission, including their energy and angle correlations. In her imaging work, she leads the development of a neutron and gamma ray radiation imager to locate and characterize plutonium. She led many experiments on uranium and plutonium at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Nevada Nuclear Security Site.

Professor Pozzi is the co-author of the Monte Carlo code MCNPX-PoliMi, which is being used at over 50 institutions world-wide. Her publication record includes over 400 papers in journals and international conference proceedings. She was invited to give over 100 seminars, both nationally and internationally. She has graduated 24 Ph. D. students who went on to develop successful careers at the national laboratories, academia, and industry.

In 2018, Professor Pozzi was named the inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for the UM College of Engineering. In this capacity, she heads the DEI implementation committee and works to ensure that the students, faculty, and staff are increasingly diverse, everyone is treated equitably, and everyone feels included.

She is the recipient of many awards, including the 2006 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Early Career Award, 2006 Department of Energy, Office of Science, Outstanding Mentor Award, 2012 INMM Edway R. Johnson Meritorious Service Award, 2012 UM Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department, Outstanding Achievement Award, 2017 IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, 2018 Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award. She is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society, the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, and the IEEE.