Faculty and Staff

Professor Sara Pozzi is a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor at the University of Michigan (U-M). She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy in 1997 and 2001. She is a Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences and a Professor of Physics. Prior to her positions at UM, she was a staff scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 2002 to 2007.

Her research interests include the development of new methods for nuclear materials detection, identification, and characterization for nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and national security programs. Professor Sara Pozzi is the founding Director of the Consortium for Verification Technology (CVT) 2014-2019 and the Consortium for Monitoring, Technology, and Verification (MTV) 2019-2024, two large consortia of multiple universities and national laboratories working together to develop new technologies needed for nuclear treaty verification. In this capacity, she directs the work of 25 faculty members and over 250 students engaged in research projects within the consortium.

Professor Sara Pozzi is the co-author of the Monte Carlo code MCNPX-PoliMi, which is being used at over 50 institutions world-wide. Her publication record includes over 175 journal papers and over 350 international conference proceedings. She was invited to give over 120 seminars, both nationally and internationally. She has graduated over 28 Ph. D. students who went on to develop successful careers at the national laboratories, academia, industry, and government.

In 2018, Professor Sara Pozzi was named the inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) for the U-M College of Engineering. In this capacity, she heads the DEI implementation committee and works to ensure that the students, faculty, and staff are increasingly diverse, everyone is treated equitably, and everyone is included.

She is the recipient of many awards, including the 2006 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Early Career Award, 2006 Department of Energy, Office of Science, Outstanding Mentor Award, 2012 INMM Edway R. Johnson Meritorious Service Award, 2017 IEEE Distinguished Lecturer, 2018 Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award. In 2022, she was elected Vice-President/President-Elect of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. She is an International Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society, the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, and the IEEE.

Dr. Mairead E. Montague is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan in Dr. Sara Pozzi’s research group. Dr. Mairead Montague completed her PhD in nuclear engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in January 2024, where she performed in-residence research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for 5 years. Dr. Mairead Montague’s dissertation title was “Characterization of a Proof-of-Concept Imager to Safeguard Spent Nuclear Fuel Using Passive Fast Neutron Emission Tomography.” Dr. Mairead Montague’s current research revolves around neutron detection with organic scintillators for nonproliferation applications. Dr. Mairead Montague received her M.S. in nuclear engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in December 2019 and her B.S. in nuclear engineering in May 2024 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Courtnee Staine received her Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Houston in 2023. Before starting her role as a Research Laboratory Specialist for DNNG, she was a fall OSTEM intern at NASA, where she assisted in Flight Software Development. As a Research Laboratory Specialist, Courtnee keeps and maintains a detailed, up to date, inventory for DNNG, manages the group’s dosimetry, assists PhD students and researchers with experiments, and is the lab assistant for the NERS 590 class.