Institute for Strategic and Innovative Technologies

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Dr. Patrick McDaniel is a Research Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the University of New Mexico and has spent a career spanning military aviation, national laboratories, and advanced nuclear systems research. He began as a pilot and maintenance officer in the U.S. Air Force before earning advanced degrees including a B.S. in Engineering Science from the U.S. Air Force Academy (1965), an M.S. in Mechanical (Nuclear) Engineering from Caltech (1966), a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University (1977), and an M.S. in National Resource Strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (1997). Following completion of his doctorate, Dr. McDaniel worked at Sandia National Laboratories on fast reactor safety, nuclear weapons effects and vulnerability, space nuclear power, and space nuclear propulsion, and later served as technical lead for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Satellite Assessment Center. He returned to Sandia to lead and manage high-consequence national programs, including DARPA’s Stimulated Isomer Energy Release project and the classified UER-X effort, and contributed to initiatives such as the Yucca Mountain Project. Since retiring from Sandia in 2009, he has focused on research and teaching at UNM, where he has served for more than four decades as an adjunct/research professor in nuclear and mechanical engineering and continues work on high-efficiency power conversion concepts for small modular reactors, including air-Brayton combined and recuperated cycle systems.