Commencement Speaker

Steve Howe is the first director of the Center for Space Nuclear Research (CSNR) in Idaho Falls. He also is currently a staff member in the Thermonuclear Applications group of the Applied Physics Division at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

His undergraduate and graduate work was in the .eld of Nuclear Engineering at Kansas State University, and he conducted his thesis research at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility.

The CSNR is operated by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), in collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The CSNR engages university scientists in research and development of advanced space nuclear systems that include space power and propulsion systems and radioisotope power generators. CSNR creates opportunities for university researchers to collaborate with their counterparts at NASA, INL and other DOE labs, and with industry in projects and initiatives to advance nuclear technologies for space exploration and other space applications. The CSNR’s research program covers both nuclear and non-nuclear elements and related sub-disciplines, such as materials, nucleonics, heat transfer, thermo.uidynamics, structures, systems engineering, testing and diagnostics. The center conducts a multidisciplinary education program in studies of space nuclear systems and related scienti.c and technical areas that uses a mix of classroom and research activities.

Steve’s research interests include antiproton physics and applications, nuclear rocket propulsion, hyper-velocity aerodynamics and thermodynamics, and nonequilibrium x-ray emission. He has published more than 50 reports in the open literature, as well as nine classi.ed reports. In addition, he is a fiction writer, and has published the novella, "Wrench and Claw," in Analog magazine and the novel, "Honor Bound Honor Born," which detailed the possible development of the .rst commercial base on the Moon. Steve also has appeared in numerous television programs about space and rocketry. His television credits include: "Living and Working in Space," PBS and Sci-Fi Channel; "Mission to Mars," Ultra Science and the Learning Channel; "Rocketships," Discovery Channel; "Rockets in Space," Wingspan; and "Voyage to the Milky Way," PBS.

Steve holds five patents that involve the storage and application of antiprotons, and he is the co-founder of Hbar Technologies, headquartered near Chicago. He has served on a number of national committees, the most recent of which is the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Space Missions Enabled by Nuclear Propulsion.