Jacob Benz received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in nuclear engineering from Oregon State University in 2005 and 2008. He says that the university gave him the opportunity, skills and confidence to push himself beyond what he knew and was comfortable with. He feels that the college is a community of like-minded individuals working as a team for a better future. “My time at OSU literally changed the arc of my career,” he added. The professional relationships that he forged as part of the NSE community opened up doors to nuclear arms control and nonproliferation — something he didn’t know existed before joining that program.
His career path has not been a straight line, but Benz says that he could not imagine doing anything else. After finishing at Oregon State, Benz began working as a nuclear engineer within the Global Security Technology and Policy group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). His work has focused on the research and development of technologies and approaches to support and enable current and future monitoring and verification initiatives in arms control and global safety practices. His projects involve collaboration and technical engagement with domestic and international partners on bilateral and multilateral verification concepts. A key aspect of his work, Benz develops tools and methods to generate and maintain confidence in treaty-accountable material, equipment, and facilities to support potential future verification objectives. He works to confirm authenticity and integrity of technologies, and associated information, that may be negotiated for use in a future treaty, and addresses how cyber security impacts the critical national security missions within nonproliferation, international safeguards, and arms control.
Jacob is proud that his work is helping to create the possibility of a safer future by creating tools and techniques to limit and account for nuclear weapons amongst future treaty partners. He hopes that he will be able to return the favor and share his knowledge with the next generation of arms control experts at universities and national laboratories.
Degrees
- M.S. Nuclear Engineering, 2008
- B.A. Nuclear Engineering, 2005