October 16, 2009 — Suzanne A. Herron has been appointed deputy project director for the U.S. ITER Project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She previously was senior manager for Project Controls for U.S. ITER.
The ITER Project is an international collaboration of scientists and engineers with the mission of designing and constructing a burning plasma experiment to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. The goal is to produce fusion power that would be at least ten times greater than the external power delivered to heat the plasma.
The United States is working on the ITER Project with its international partners, which include the People's Republic of China, the European Union, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation. The device is being assembled at Cadarache in southeastern France from components designed and fabricated in the member countries.
In Herron's new role, she shares responsibility for providing leadership in all project areas with U.S. ITER Project Director Ned Sauthoff. She also will help lead interactions with the international ITER Organization regarding scope and schedule of the U.S. portion of the project.
Before joining U.S. ITER as Project Controls manager, Herron held a similar position for ORNL's $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source Project for seven years. She has more than 30 years of diverse experience in U.S. Department of Energy and industry programs, including some 20 years in project and program management.
Herron has served on a number of national and international advisory boards for large-scale science projects. She is the recipient of numerous company achievement awards, including recognition as Middle Manager of the Year at ORNL's 2001 Awards Night.
Herron holds a B.S. in mathematics and an M.S. in industrial and systems engineering, both from Ohio University. She and her husband, Andrew, live in Lenoir City. They have three children.
The U.S. ITER Project Office is hosted by ORNL and sponsored by DOE's Office of Science.
For more information, please visit: https://www.usiter.org/.