Paul Hommert
Community Volunteer
Paul Hommert is the former Director of Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia has principal sites in Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA. At the time of Dr. Hommert’s leadership, Sandia had an annual operating revenue of about $3.0 billion, and approximately 11,000 employees. Sandia is the nation’s largest National Laboratory.
From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Hommert was the Director of Research and Applied Science at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in the United Kingdom, where he led the science and engineering organization responsible for the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent.
From 2003 to 2006, Dr. Hommert led the Applied Physics Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 2006, Dr.Hommert returned to Sandia to become Vice President of Sandia’s California site, a position he held until 2009. In this position Dr.Hommert was responsible for all of Sandia’s work with the Department of Homeland Security. In July 2010, Dr. Hommert became the 13th Director of Sandia National Laboratories and President of Sandia Corporation.
As Director, Dr. Hommert oversaw Sandia’s programmatic efforts across nuclear weapons, nonproliferation, homeland security, advanced conventional military developments, support for the Intelligence community, and energy research.
Dr. Hommert earned a BS degree cum laude in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and MS and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. He received an Outstanding Alumnus Award for Professional Excellence in 2003 from Purdue’s School of Mechanical Engineering and a Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award in 2010 from Purdue’s College of Engineering.
In August of 2015 Dr. Hommert was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Council on Competitiveness. He serves on the External Advisory Board to the Department of Mechanical, Aeronautical, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Dr. Hommert retired as Sandia Laboratory Director in July 2015, becoming a Director Emeritus of the Laboratory.
Dr. Hommert and his wife relocated to Phoenix in 2015 and enjoy the local arts environment, wine collecting, travel, and season tickets to the Diamondbacks. They have two children and four grandchildren.