Marianne Walck

Marianne Walck

Dr. Marianne C. Walck is Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology and Chief Research Officer at Idaho National Laboratory. Previously, Walck served as vice president of Sandia National Laboratories’ California laboratory and served as lead for the Laboratories’ Energy and Climate business unit. The California laboratory’s principal programs include nuclear weapons stewardship; homeland security with a focus on defending against weapons of mass destruction; combustion, transportation and hydrogen energy research; biology; and advanced computational and information systems. Walck is also served as the Associate Director for the Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center.

Prior to moving to Sandia’s California laboratory, Walck was the Director of the Geoscience, Climate, and Consequence Effects Center. She served on the Sandia Research Leadership Team, led the Geoscience Research Foundation, and was the Program Director for Sandia’s Climate Security Program. Walck has more than 24 years of technical management experience. Previous roles have included Director of the Nuclear Energy and Global Security Technologies Center at Sandia, Senior Manager for the Nuclear Energy Safety Technologies Group, and Manager of the Geophysics Department.

Walck earned her Ph.D. in geophysics (seismology) from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1984; an M.S. in geophysics, also from Caltech in 1981; and an A.B. in geology/physics from Hope College (Holland, Michigan) in 1978. She is author of more than 60 technical papers and published presentations. She holds memberships in the American Geophysical Union, the Seismological Society of America, the Association for Women Geoscientists, and the American Nuclear Society. Walck has served on numerous professional committees for national laboratories and professional societies. She is a member of the Advisory Council for the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University. She volunteers at Sandia Labs as a mentor, in the Albuquerque community with the Regional Science Fair, and as a violinist in a community orchestra.