Dr. Michael J. Pivovaroff was named Associate Deputy Director for Science and Technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in March 2022. Reporting to Dr. Patricia Falcone, Deputy Director for Science and Technology (DDST), Mike fulfills DDST’s responsibilities to advance LLNL’s core scientific and engineering competencies and ensure leading-edge technical capabilities are available for the execution of the Laboratory’s national security missions.

Mike is an experimental physicist who has worked in the Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory complex for more than 25 years in a variety of scientific and management roles. Over his career, he has designed, fabricated, and deployed x-ray and detectors for NASA satellites, DOE x-ray light sources, biomedical applications, and particle physics experiments. He has also developed instrumentation, performed analysis, and created capabilities for the security space enterprise.

Mike has spent most of his career at LLNL, conducting basic R&D, supporting national security, and holding increasing roles of responsibility both as a program manager and a leader of multi-disciplinary organizations. In October 2014, he was named the first leader of the LLNL Director’s Initiative for Space, allowing Pivovaroff to coordinate, integrate, and grow the space security and science programs across the Laboratory. His success led to the creation of the Space Science and Security Program (SSSP) in May 2016, and he was selected as the inaugural Program Leader for SSSP in August 2016. Prior to his most recent role at LLNL, he served as an Associate Laboratory Director at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Mike remains active in the science and academic communities through authorship of refereed articles and conference proceedings, manuscript editing, and serving on review panels for DOE/Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and NASA. Mike was elected a Senior Member of SPIE in 2015 for his research on reflective X-ray optics and was selected for LLNL’s Early and Mid-Career Recognition (EMCR) Program in 2017.

Mike holds a B.A. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, a Ph.D. in physics from MIT, and a graduate Certificate in National Security Affairs from Texas A&M University.

 

PhD, Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000

BA, Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 1993

Certificate, National Security Affairs, Texas A&M, 2010

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