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Patrick McDaniel
Research Professor and Associate Director
Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies
MSC01-1120, FEC 239
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Phone: 505.277.4950
Fax: 505.277.2814
mcdaniep@unm.edu
 Dr. Patrick J. McDaniel is a Research Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering and the Associate Director of the Institute of Space and Nuclear Power Studies at the University of New Mexico (UNM). His experience and research interests include radiation transport, nuclear reactor dynamics and control, space power and propulsion, the space environment, and engineering applications of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions. Dr. McDaniel comes to the Institute with 40+ years experience working in the nuclear and aerospace fields.
He began his career as a pilot for the USAF, flying C-141’s, HH-43’s, and Huey’s. He transitioned to aircraft maintenance after a tour in Viet Nam and served for 4 years as a flight test maintenance officer on helicopters. After departing the active USAF to return to graduate school for a PhD, he flew A-37’s as a USAF Reserve flight test officer. He completed his military career as a reservist with a number of research assignments for multiple organizations located on Kirtland AFB, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel.
After obtaining his PhD in nuclear engineering in 1977, he joined the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories. There he worked on fast reactor safety, radiation transport analysis for oil well logging, nuclear weapon survivability, and space reactor power and propulsion. During the Strategic Defense Initiative, he served as Sandia’s lead engineer on the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion program. During this period, he also organized the Classified Sessions for the ISNPS Space Nuclear Power Conference held at Sandia National Laboratories.
In 1991, he was asked to join the Air Force Phillips Laboratory as an Intergovernmental Personnel Act employee to become the lead technical advisor for the USAF Satellite Assessment Center (SatAC). In 1993, he became a civil servant and while serving as the Technical Advisor for the SatAC, he also served as Deputy Chief. During this period he worked on and advised the Air Force Research Laboratory Staff on survivability issues for satellites dealing with trapped radiation, space debris, and directed energy weapons. He served on a NASA Blue Ribbon Panel on Space Debris as the USAF representative. He also developed a concept for a triggered isomer chain reaction at the end of his tour at SatAC.
He returned to Sandia to lead a national program on triggered isomers for DARPA. Amid significant controversy, his team was able to show that triggering does occur at the 25+ sigma level, and that when triggered the isomer decayed by a significantly different cascade than its natural radioactive decay. While at Sandia he served as the Department Manager for Advanced Power Sources for Electro-Magnetic Systems. During this period he was introduced to the concept of Low Energy Nuclear Reactions and the theoretical issues associated with their engineering applications.
He has taught numerous courses for the University of New Mexico, Graduate School of Engineering from 1977 to 2008. These include Advanced Reactor Analysis, Thermodynamics, Radiation Shielding, Monte Carlo Methods, Reactor Kinetics and Dynamics, Radiation Interaction with Matter, and Orbital Mechanics. He averaged almost one graduate course per academic year, while working full time for either Sandia or the Air Force Research Laboratory. In addition he has taught several short courses offered by ISNPS for professionals working in the field.
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