Dr. Marianne Walck provides strategic leadership, direction and integration for research, science and technology at Idaho National Laboratory in her roles as deputy laboratory director for Science and Technology and chief research officer. She leads INL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, directs the lab’s interactions with the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and oversees INL’s strategic interactions with universities. She has more than 30 years of DOE national laboratory leadership experience, including technical program leadership, research leadership, and line, personnel and site management. Prior to joining INL, Walck was vice president of Sandia National Laboratories’ California laboratory, where she was responsible for a site with 1,300 employees conducting research and development related to nuclear weapons stewardship; homeland security with a focus on defending against weapons of mass destruction; combustion, transportation and hydrogen energy research; biology; and advanced computational and information systems. Walck also served as vice president in charge of Sandia’s Energy and Climate Program, encompassing a wide variety of energy technology programs including renewable energy systems and energy infrastructure, climate and engineered systems, fossil energy, nuclear and fuel cycle, and transportation energy systems. Earlier, she held a variety of research and management positions at Sandia. She served on the Sandia Research Leadership Team; created and led the Geoscience Research Foundation; was director of the Geoscience, Climate and Consequence Effects Center; and was director of the Nuclear Energy and Global Security Technologies Center. Walck serves on the U.S. Women in Nuclear Executive Advisory Council. She is a past chair of the National Laboratory Chief Research Officers and serves on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory Mechanical and Thermal Engineering Sciences Technology Panel, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Institutional Strategy Science and Technology Committee, and the Idaho Higher Education Research Council. Walck was named one of the Top 100 Women in Energy by the National Diversity Council in 2021, is a distinguished expert of the California Council on Science and Technology, and is a Clean Energy Education and Empowerment ambassador. She is a member of the American Geophysical Union, the Seismological Society of America, the Association for Women Geoscientists, Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission Council (gubernatorial appointment), the American Nuclear Society, Women in Nuclear, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She earned doctorate and master’s degrees in geophysics from California Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in geology/physics from Hope College.

Walck and her husband have two sons. She volunteers as a mentor, and enjoys judging student science fairs and performing as a violinist in community orchestras.