Richard Lara

I'm a first generation college graduate who grew up in San Antonio, Texas. I joined the US Navy after high school as part of their nuclear power program where I served aboard a submarine for over 4 years, with 2 years in training. After leaving the military I became a full time student, studying physics at the University of Texas at Austin. While there I also worked at their TRIGA nuclear reactor, contributing to research using neutron activation analysis and gamma ray spectroscopy. My work produced four research publications, including one as a first author. Two of my summers were spent as an intern in the Nuclear Engineering division at Argonne National Laboratory, where I assisted with active and passive millimeter-wave experiments. After graduation, I moved to the Northern Virginia area working as the lead in the Sensor Operations Center as part of the Nuclear Monitoring team. I helped monitor and maintain systems that detected radionuclides present from nuclear weapon tests. This was part of the CTBTO's International Monitoring System. Now I am a physicist who performs scientific analysis and computational modeling to evaluate intrinsic, normal, and hostile radiation environments and their effect on electrical and mechanical components. This is in support of the Navy Strategic Systems Programs.