Dr. Richard Wagner, Jr.

Richard L. Wagner, Jr. is a physicist who has worked in nuclear weapon design and development, missile defense, treaty-verification, non-proliferation, countering nuclear terrorism and WMD in general, information technology for defense applications, defense intelligence, and nuclear and non-nuclear energy. Between 1981 and 1986, he was Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy, a Senate-confirmed presidential appointment with responsibility for oversight of all of DoD’s activities related to nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, and chemical and biological defense programs, and for DoD liaison with the Department of Energy. From 1963 to 1981 Dr. Wagner worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, becoming the Laboratory’s Deputy Director in 1978. He was Group Vice President of the Kaman Corporation, a defense technology contractor. Since 1996 he has been affiliated with the Los Alamos National Laboratory in several capacities, working in Washington, DC. Since 1971 he has been a member or chair of several senior advisory committees to DoD, the intelligence community, and in NATO. Dr. Wagner is the 2012 recipient of the Eugene Fubini Award for career contributions in providing advice and guidance to the Department of Defense at the interface between science and technology and national security policy. In 1992 he was made Commandeur de l’Ordre National de Mèrite by the government of France. He and his wife Ginny live in Oxford, Maryland.