NSE alum honored at Pentagon Annual Awards Ceremony
NSE alum Daria Stafford ’00, was one of nine Department of Defense employees honored for their service, dedication, and professionalism in their roles at the DoD. Stafford received the Distinguished Civilian Service Award and is cited for “continuously demonstrated an outstanding ability to effectively analyze and resolve challenges facing the Department of Defense.”
Stafford graduated with a BS in Nuclear Science and Engineering and a minor in Political Science in 2000. Her senior thesis entitled “Instrumentation for Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Verification: Verification of Subcritical Assemblies for Experiments” was completed under the supervision of Dr. Richard Lanza. Her work, done in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, involved the development of cryogenic radiation detectors whose resolution is ten times better than current state of the art detectors. Currently, Stafford is an Evaluation Staff Specialist in the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation at the DoD.
The Distinguished Civilian Service Award is the highest recognition the DoD can give, and it is presented to a small number of civilian employees whose careers reflect exceptional devotion to duty and significant contributions of broad scope in policy, scientific, technical or administrative fields that increase effectiveness and efficiency, according to the DoD.
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