Dr. Bruce T. Goodwin

Bruce Goodwin is a retired senior fellow at the Center for Global Security Research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Currently, he is a CGSR Visiting Scientist. Before becoming a Senior Fellow, he was the Associate Director-at-Large for National Security Policy and Research. In this, role he was responsible for LLNL policy research and liaison with the US military, US government and non-governmental organizations. Previous to that position, he was the Principal Associate Director for the nuclear weapons program at Lawrence Livermore from 2001 until 2013. He has been a key player in the success of the nuclear weapons program since 1981, first at Los Alamos National Laboratory and since 1985 at LLNL. While at both Labs, he was design physicist on five nuclear tests. As the Principal Associate Director, he led the process to certify LLNL nuclear weapons and was responsible for establishing priorities, developing strategies, and designing and maintaining LLNL’s nuclear weapons. In leading the Stockpile Stewardship Program, he was instrumental in developing the Quantification of Margins and Uncertainties methodology for sustaining the deterrent without nuclear testing. He won the Department of Energy E.O. Lawrence Award for innovative weapons science by demonstrating that plutonium behaves in a fundamentally different way than previously thought – now the basis for understanding weapons performance. Goodwin received his doctorate and master’s in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Illinois, and his bachelor’s degree in Physics from City College of New York. As one of the world’s leading theoretical experts in plutonium and implosion dynamics, he often presents weapons physics to the community, officials, and members of Congress.

Selected Papers, Presentations, and Publications

"Nuclear Weapons Technology 101 for Policy Wonks," Bruce T. Goodwin Center for Global Security Research Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory August 2021

"Technical Issues in the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) Ratification Debate: A 20 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE," Anna Péczeli and Bruce Goodwin Center for Global Security Research Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory September 2020

"Additive Manufacturing and Nuclear Security CALIBRATING REWARDS AND RISKS," Bruce T. Goodwin CENTER FOR GLOBAL SECURITY RESEARCH Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory November 2019

“Additive Manufacturing and High-Performance Computing: Latent Disruptive Technology Impacts on National Security and Nuclear Proliferation”, Stillwell Memorial Lecture, Aerospace Engineering Dept., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 24, 2017

“Reactor Plutonium Utility in Nuclear Explosives”, NPEC Public Workshop, Tokyo, Japan, July 24, 2015

“Nuclear Weapons Technology and Why States Test Nuclear Weapons” CTBTO Diplomacy and Public Policy Course, Vienna, Austria, July 16, 2013

“The Supercomputing Race”, Bruce Goodwin and Thomas Zacharia, The Washington Post, June 23, 2011

“Setting an Example: Maximum Deterrence, Minimum Stockpile,” Bruce T. Goodwin, Wilton Park Conference 944: Nuclear Non-Proliferation at the Crossroads, Wiston House, Sussex, UK, December 18, 2008

“Stewarding a Reduced Stockpile,” Bruce T. Goodwin and Glenn L. Mara, LLNL-CONF-403041 AAAS Technical Issues Workshop, Washington, DC, April 24, 2008

“National Certification Strategy for the Nuclear Weapon Stockpile,” (Defining document of the Quantification of Margins and Uncertainty Stockpile Stewardship Methodology), Bruce T. Goodwin and Raymond J. Juzaitis, March 28, 2003

“Rayleigh-Taylor Instability Experiments Examining Feedthrough Growth in an Incompressible, Convergent Geometry,” S. T. Weir, E. A. Chandler, and B. T. Goodwin, Physical Review Letters, vol 80, no 17, pp 3763-3766, 1998 April 27

“Boosted Primaries: Mix sources, Simulations and Test Results (U),” Bruce T. Goodwin, National Security Science and Technology Review, vol 94, no 2, Oct 1994, UCRL 50000-94-2 (SRD)

“Mix in Primaries: Inferences From a Few Salient Nuclear Tests (U),” Bruce T. Goodwin, Defense Research Review, vol 4, issue 3, Oct 1992 (SRD)

“Initial Neutrino Loss in Neutron Star Formation,” B. T. Goodwin, The Astrophysical Journal, vol 261, no 1, part 1, pp 321-331, 1982 Oct 1