Bret Simpkins

Bret Simpkins serves as the Associate Laboratory Director for Facilities and Operations at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Since 2014, Bret has been the Director of Facilities and Operations for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) where he was responsible for campus-wide facility strategic planning, projects and engineering, operations and maintenance, nuclear operations, and real estate management functions. Prior to this role, he served in a number of senior level positions at PNNL including Director of Nuclear Operations, Chief Operating Officer for the National Security Directorate, and Division Manager of Nuclear Science, Safety, and Nonproliferation. Bret has more than 30 years of experience, including management and leadership of large inter-disciplinary R&D, applied science, technology, and engineering activities and organizations. Topical areas impacted by his work include: directed energy weapons, nuclear reactor safety, safety and physical security of nuclear facilities and materials, nuclear weapons assembly/disassembly process safety, global security, nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. Bret received his M.S. in Nuclear Engineering and B.E. in Energy and Power Systems from the University of New Mexico. He is a registered Professional Engineer.