Joe Pitt-Rashid is the Strategy and Policy Director at the Defence Nuclear Organisation in the Ministry of Defence. He is responsible for advising both the Ministry of Defence and the wider UK Government on nuclear deterrence policy, counter proliferation policy, and nuclear operational planning and analysis. He is also responsible for cohering cross-cutting projects for the nuclear enterprise as a whole to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation.
Prior to this post, he spent the majority of his career in HM Treasury, working on a range of economic, international, and security issues. He has also held posts in the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and assisted in establishing the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology.
Chris Heffer became Director, Nuclear Power and Decommissioning at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on 31st August 2021.
Chris was previously the Deputy Trade Commissioner for North-East Asia based in the British Embassy in Tokyo for six years where he was responsible for Trade and Investment across all sectors, including Nuclear. Before that he worked in Strategy and Customer Insight roles in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Department of Health. He also led Drugs and
Alcohol Policy within the Public Health Directorate of the Health Department.
Prior to joining the Civil Service, Chris was a Senior Manager at Deloitte, working in variety of sectors, including Life Sciences, Manufacturing and Consumer Business in Japan, Germany, France and the US. He studied Engineering, Economics and Management at University, and was a Sponsored Engineer during that time at Ford Motor Company UK
Dr. Sarah B. Hiza is the vice president of Engineering & Technology at Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS). She currently leads a team of more than 14,000 engineers and scientists across the globe who are creating innovative technology solutions that advance deterrence and national security capabilities, such as helicopter programs, ship and aviation systems, cybersecurity, and C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) systems.
Recently, Dr. Hiza served as the vice president and general manager of the Strategic and Missile Defence Systems line of business at Lockheed Martin. In that role, she led a team of over 6,500 employees across 18 U.S. and U.K. sites who delivered strategic deterrence, missile defense, and hypersonic strike solutions to support the most critical missions for the US and her allies. She has and currently served on various boards for Lockheed Martin UK, Lockheed Martin UK Strategic Systems, Ltd., the US Strategic Deterrent Coalition, and NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). Her technical expertise includes work in polymers and energetic materials, including explosives and rocket propellants, and missile and reentry hardware/subsystems.
Callum graduated from Heriot-Watt University with a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering with Energy Engineering. In 2023 he joined AWE: Nuclear Security Technologies on the Evolve Engineering Graduate Scheme. During this time, he has experienced placements with a variety of teams across the business developing his technical knowledge.
His interest in space exploration motivated him to pursue his UK PONI research topic delving into the opportunities for the United Kingdom within the broader subject of nuclear propulsion in space.
Mackenzie Schuessler is the Program Coordinator for the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Previously, she was a Staff Assistant in the United States House of Representatives.
In addition to her role at Carnegie, Mackenzie is a graduate student at George Mason University. She is working towards a master’s degree in international security, with a focus on transnational threats. She is especially interested in nonproliferation, nuclear security, and counterterrorism.
In 2019, Mackenzie completed her undergraduate education at the University of Missouri, Columbia, obtaining dual degrees in political science and international studies, and a minor in Middle Eastern religious studies.
Sarah Sobalvarro is a recent graduate of the War Studies Department at King's College London, where she earned a BA in International Relations. Her undergraduate dissertation, which focused on the security concerns surrounding state-led initiatives to market nuclear technology to non-nuclear countries, serves as the foundation for her presentation at this conference.
Currently, Ms. Sobalvarro is pursuing a Master's degree in Security Studies at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. This past year, she gained valuable experience as an intern at the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the United States Department of State, where she conducted open-source research on foreign nuclear technology programs. Her current research interests lie in tracking the development and transfer of Generation IV and dual-use nuclear technology to the Global South
I am currently the Group Lead for Reactor Physics at Rolls-Royce Submarines. I have been with Rolls-Royce for 10 Years with my first two years a graduate in the Nucleargraduate scheme. Since then I have worked in Core Methods, developing the codes the physics team uses, before moving into the Reactor Physics team itself. My background is Astrophysics having obtained a Masters in Physics with Astronomy from Cardiff University.
I have always had a keen interest in space, physics and defence and my job at Rolls-Royce has allowed me to support the latter two in my career and now with Rolls-Royce looking to expand into the space nuclear field, potentially all three.
The war in Ukraine and thus the outbreak of war in Europe was something I never though I would see and has had a deep impact on me, this combined with my background inspired my PONI talk.
Jacob joined the civil nuclear industry in 2013 after completing the Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors MSc at the University of Birmingham. He worked for Horizon Nuclear Power for 6 years as an Operations and Commissioning Engineer. In 2019 he joined Rolls-Royce Submarines working on next generation technology and enabling capability which included a 2 year secondment to the Nuclear Innovation & Research Office.
He recently joined Frazer-Nash Consultancy where he is supporting new nuclear build.
Jacob has also been involved in outreach and advocacy in the industry, first as the Young Generation Network (YGN) International Representative and International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC) Board Member and more recently as a member of the Next Generation Nuclear Industry Council (NGNIC) working on civ-def collaboration.
Freya joined Cavendish Nuclear as a process engineer after graduating from the University of Sheffield with a master’s degree in chemical engineering in 2022. At Cavendish she has worked across a range of workstreams on a major project in nuclear defence. Additionally, her interest in process safety has resulted in publishing work on safety resilience modelling, which she presented at the IChemE’s Hazards 32 conference.
As a woman in a largely male industry, she has developed a keen interest in increasing sector engagement with under-represented groups and reducing barriers to entering related career paths. Her research incorporates many of these topics in relation to the engineering skills gap facing industry.
Professor Malcolm Chalmers is Deputy Director-General of RUSI and directs its growing portfolio of research into contemporary defence and security issues.
His own work is focused on UK defence, foreign and security policy. His most recent papers have been on national interest and UK foreign policy, tensions between the rules-based international systems, UK defence budgeting, and the security implications of Brexit.
Chalmers has been an Adviser to Parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy since 2012, and was Senior Special Adviser to Foreign Secretaries Jack Straw MP and Margaret Beckett MP.
Lukasz Kulesa is the Director of Proliferation and Nuclear Policy at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). The PNP group conducts research and convenes dialogues on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons issues, as well as WMP non-proliferation and the nexus between civil and military nuclear programmes.
His personal research interests include nuclear and conventional deterrence, arms control, Euro-Atlantic security, NATO and Russian security policy, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the transatlantic security relationship.
Prior to joining RUSI, Lukasz was Deputy Head of Research Office at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (Warsaw). He also worked as Research Director at the European Leadership Network (ELN), and as Deputy Director of the Strategic Analyses Department at the Polish National Security Bureau, a body providing aid and support to the President in executing security and defence tasks.
Lukasz holds an MA in International Relations and European Studies from the Central European University and is a graduate of the law department of the Jagiellonian University.
With over 25 years experience working with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory in areas including long-term liabilities associated with contaminated land; environmental safety assessment to major operational and capital build projects supporting the UK civil nuclear programme on a diverse range of projects and technical issues across the UK civil nuclear estate; and engineering project delivery.
Since 2006, Jeremy has managed the development and delivery of a nuclear security and threat reduction capability within National Nuclear Laboratory. He has led capacity building projects, the development of the Nuclear Site Security Plan for the commissioning of a Cat I nuclear facility, and the development of the Security Assessment Principles (SyAP’s) aligned Nuclear Site Security Plans. In his current role Jeremy leads the National Nuclear Laboratory strategic investment in Security and Non-proliferation. He is a Member of the Security Institute, Fellow of the Nuclear Institute, Chartered Security Professional, chairs the Nuclear Institute Special Interest Group on nuclear security and is a member of the CBRN-UK Executive Committee.
Darya Dolzikova is a Research Fellow with RUSI’s Proliferation and Nuclear Policy programme. Her work focuses on understanding and countering the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology and strategic aspects of civil nuclear technology. She has conducted research on the Iranian nuclear programme and related diplomacy, Iranian and North Korean proliferation-related sanctions evasion, nuclear safety in Ukraine, the role of Russia in global civil nuclear supply chains, and other issues relating to nuclear technology and proliferation.
Prior to joining RUSI, Darya had served as the manager of government relations and policy development at Canada’s national aerospace industry association. She also has experience working in the due diligence sector and on defence-related issues in Canada’s Parliament.
Darya holds an MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University and a BSocSc in International Studies and Modern Languages from the University of Ottawa.
Cassie graduated with an MEng (Hons) in Aeronautics & Spacecraft Systems Design from the University of Southampton. Joining Rolls-Royce in 2018, she has rotated through roles across various Rolls-Royce divisions (Defence Aerospace, Civil Aerospace, Power Systems & Submarines) and functional areas (Improvement, Marketing, Project Management, Government Relations, and Strategy). Cassie now leads RRS’ contribution to the quad-partite Submarine Delivery Enterprise (SDE) programme, based within a collaborative team at MoD Abbey Wood and the Babcock Technology Centre. Within this role, Cassie also leads the wider Rolls-Royce Submarines regional presence in Bristol.
