Dr. Matt Heavner is the Director of Los Alamos National Lab’s (LANL) Feynman Center for Innovation and serves as the focal point for LANL’s Arctic Work. He is also a Research Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a Scientist with the New Mexico Consortium.
Matt’s scientific background in geophysics includes published studies of many aspects of the Earth System: space weather and aurora, glaciology, lightning and atmospheric electricity, and seismology. At LANL, Matt has applied his technical background to lead the On-orbit U.S. Nuclear Detonation Detection System Radio Frequency (RF) sensors on the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) constellation. To ensure this national capability, Matt relied on expertise in lightning discharge physics, ionospheric propagation, digital signal processing, satellite constellation performance, and nuclear weapons source phenomenology.
In addition to his scientific interests, Dr. Heavner has engaged at the intersection of science and policy. During 2014-2017, Matt was the Assistant Director of Global Security at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). At OSTP, Dr. Heavner focused on a range of nuclear issues including strategic deterrence capabilities, non-proliferation, counter-proliferation, early detection of nuclear proliferation, naval nuclear reactors, civilian nuclear energy, medical isotope production, and the health and sufficiency of the nuclear enterprise. At OSTP, Dr. Heavner also worked on planetary defense as well as Arctic topics and supported President Obama’s visit to the Arctic.
Dr. Heavner earned his PhD in Physics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and his bachelor degrees in Physics, Mathematics, and Philosophy from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.