NNSA Academic Programs
Training the Next Generation of Stockpile StewardsStewardship Science Academic Alliances
The Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program supports scientific academic research programs to develop the next generation of highly trained technical workers able to support its core mission and to ensure there is a strong community of technical peers, external to the NNSA national laboratories, capable of providing peer review and scientific competition to strengthen the basic fields of research relevant to the national security enterprise (NSE).
The Stewardship Science Academic Alliances (SSAA) Program funds both collaborative Centers of Excellence and smaller individual investigator research projects to conduct fundamental science and technology research of relevance to stockpile stewardship. Current technical areas include studies of materials under extreme conditions, low-energy nuclear science, high energy density physics, and radiochemistry. SSAA funding supports research at approximately 80 universities, including training of over 350 undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral researchers each year. A key element of both centers of excellence and individual investigator awards is the connection of students with the nuclear security enterprise. These opportunities are focused in technical fields critical to stewardship science, building a field of talented researchers and committed doctoral students sharing a common desire to advance science while impacting national security.
SAVE THE DATE: 2024 SSAP Symposium, February 21-22, 2024, Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA
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2023 - 2028 Centers of Excellence
- Advanced Characterization of Metals under Extreme Environments (ACME2), Colorado School of Mines
- CENTAUR: Nuclear Science in Service to the Nation, Texas A&M University
- Center for Additively Manufactured Complex Systems under Extremes (CAMCSE), University of Alabama at Birmingham
- Center for High Energy Density Laboratory Astrophysics Research, University of Michigan
- Chicago/DOE Alliance Center – A Center of Excellence for Materials at Extremes, University of Illinois Chicago
- The Center for Magnetic Acceleration, Compression, and Heating (MACH), University of Michigan
- The Center for Matter Under Extreme Conditions, University of California, San Diego
- The Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties, University of Texas at Austin
- Transuranic Chemistry Center of Excellence, Georgia Institute of Technology
2017 - 2023 Centers of Excellence
- Actinide Center of Excellence (ACE), University of Notre Dame
- Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties, University of Texas at Austin
- Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training and University based Research (CENTAUR), Texas A&M University
- Center for Research Excellence on Dynamically Deformed Solids (CREDDS), Texas A&M University
- Center for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Michigan
- Center for Advanced Nuclear Diagnostics and Platforms for ICF and HED Physics at Omega, NIF, and Z, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Multi-University Center of Excellence for Pulsed-power-driven High Energy Density Science, Cornell University
- Center for Matter under Extreme Conditions, University of California, San Diego
- Chicago/DOE Alliance Center (CDAC), University of Illinois Chicago
Program Management
SSAA is managed by NNSA’s Defense ProgramsTerri Stone, Federal Program Contact
terri.stone@nnsa.doe.gov