Nancy B. Jackson is a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. Department of State working in both the Science Advisor to the Secretary of State’s office and in the International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau on a two-year assignment. Her work focuses on technical innovation and chemical nonproliferation. Previously, she was manager of the International Chemical Threat Reduction Department in the Global Security Center at Sandia National Laboratories where, with the U.S. Department of State, Dr. Jackson developed the Chemical Security Engagement Program (CSP) an international program to raise awareness of chemical safety and security among chemical professionals and to enable the practice of safety and security in the research, teaching, and commerce of chemicals. CSP has worked with universities, small/medium chemical companies, and government regulators in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Her group is responsible for encouraging the safe and secure practice of chemicals in an effort to prevent their misuse as weapons.
Before working in chemical security, Dr. Jackson was deputy director of Sandia’s International Security Program where she assisted the director in fulfilling its mission to create technology-based solutions through international cooperation to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism. Prior to her positions in Global Security, Dr. Jackson was involved in research and development at Sandia, as a principal investigator and a manager. Primarily her research was in heterogeneous catalysis with an emphasis on energy applications. Later work involved chemical imaging with a wide variety of applications from biological systems to homeland defense problems.
Dr. Jackson received the 2013 Award for Science and Diplomacy from the American Association for the Advancement of Science where she is also a Fellow. She is a fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry where she also received the Distinguished Women in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Award in 2011. She was recipient of the 2005 American Indian Science and Engineering Society Professional of the Year Award. Dr. Jackson has a BS degree in chemistry from George Washington University from which she won a Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award in 2005 and has a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2009, she was elected to the Presidential succession of the American Chemical Society. She served as President-Elect for 2010, President for 2011, and Immediate Past President for 2012, and is a fellow of the American Chemical Society. In 2013, she became a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.