Dr. Mark A. Williamson is the Division Director of the Chemical and Fuel Cycle Technologies Division at Argonne National Laboratory. He leads Argonne’s nuclear chemical engineering team with research and development activities in used nuclear fuel recycling, fuel fabrication, and safeguards for next-generation nuclear energy systems. He also oversees radioisotope generation and separation systems for future application in the medical and industrial sectors.

Dr. Williamson’s most recent position at Argonne was managing the Nuclear Chemical Engineering Department in the Nuclear Engineering Division. During his nearly 20-year career at Argonne in the Chemical Technology, Chemical Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering Divisions, he has led a number of efforts to grow Argonne’s work in nuclear fuel reprocessing through collaborations with national and international research organizations, industry, and federal research sponsors.

Before joining Argonne, he was a technical staff member at Los Alamos National Laboratory where his work focused on understanding the properties of actinide compounds and their behavior in chemical processing systems. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Kansas, and degrees in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Toledo.

His technical career has focused on developing pyrochemical processing technologies for sustainable nuclear energy systems. He has extensive experience in molten salt chemistry and property measurement; chemical process design, development, and demonstration; equipment engineering; and facility design. His work includes the transformation of unit operations from concept to pilot scale with
a focus toward technology commercialization.