NucleCast

Maj. Gen. Jason R. Armagost is the Commander, Eighth Air Force, and Commander, Joint-Global Strike Operations Center, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. "The Mighty Eighth" is responsible for the service’s bomber force and airborne nuclear command and control assets, encompassing approximately 24,000 Airmen across six installations, and proudly operating more than 150 E-4, B-1, B-2, B-52 and T-38 aircraft. The J-GSOC serves as the central command and control node for all operations within Air Force Global Strike Command, orchestrating warfighting and readiness activities for the Commander, Air Forces Strategic.

Maj. Gen. Armagost graduated from the United States Air Force Academy and was commissioned in 1992. He has served in multiple operational and training assignments and logged more than 2,900 hours in the B-2A, F-16CJ, F 16CG, B-1B, B-52H and T-38A. His notable educational and staff assignments include a fellowship at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, California, Chief of Nuclear Operations on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, and Director of Strategic Plans, Programs, and Requirements at Air Force Global Strike Command.

Maj. Gen. Armagost commanded the 13th Bomb Squadron at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, North Dakota, and the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. His operational assignments supported contingency operations during operations Desert Strike, Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, Inherent Resolve, Freedom’s Sentinel and Deliberate Resolve. He also served as the Deputy Commanding General for Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, where he led coordination of the DoD’s historic security assistance support effort to the Ukrainian government. Further, he has flown numerous combat missions in the F-16CJ, B-2A, B-1B and the B-52H.

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Tomás Díaz de la Rubia is a science and technology leader, strategist and administrator with extensive experience in government, academia and the private sector. At present, Tomas is the Vice President for Research and Partnerships at the University of Oklahoma. In this capacity, he leads OU’s efforts to enhance the scale and scope of the university’s research enterprise, and to develop a new strategic framework for research to propel the university forward, particularly in the areas of national security, energy and sustainability, and the life sciences.

Tomas was the Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at Purdue University. During Tomas’ tenure at Purdue from September 2015 to September 2019, Discovery Park’s focused strategically on the development of real-world solutions to major global challenges in health and the life sciences; sustainability and the nexus of energy, food, water, climate and the environment; and national security and defense. Over the same period, Discovery Park saw growth in research funding from industry, government, foreign institutions and philanthropic organizations of over 120%. Tomas was also responsible for the success of the Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and the Purdue Foundry, a hub to nurture and launch new start-up companies based on faculty and student intellectual property (IP) into the market. Over 100 new companies have been created over the last four years.

Tomas worked for Deloitte Consulting, LLP where he was the innovation leader and a Director in the energy and resources industry practice. Based in Washington, D.C, he advised C-Suite executives at major multinational Oil and Gas companies and electrical utilities on ways to identify and capitalize on new technologies such as Internet of Things, additive manufacturing, robotics, augmented reality and wearable technologies, and predictive analytics.

Tomás was the Deputy Director for Science and Technology (DDST) at the U.S. Department of Energy Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, where he served as the Laboratory’s Chief Research Officer (CRO) and oversaw a $250M program of basic and applied research in support of the Laboratory’s missions in science and technology, nuclear security, defense, counterterrorism, energy and technology commercialization.

In addition to these leadership roles, Tomas is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Intelligence Community Studies Board, which was tasked in 2016 by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence and discusses science and technology issues of importance to the nations’ intelligence community. He is a board member of the National Defense Industry Association, and of CRFD Global. Among his hobbies, he is a member of the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a worldwide group dedicated to promoting the virtues of the wines and foods of Burgundy.

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This is a special one hour episode with Dr. Lani Kass, Senior Advisor for Center for American Defense Studies and Senior Fellow at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

From December 2011 to January 2020, Dr. Kass served as Senior Vice President and Corporate Strategic Advisor at CACI. In 2014, she was elected to the Board of Women in Aerospace (WIA) and in 2016, sworn in as a member of the Air University Board of Visitors’ Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Subcommittee, designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Research.

Prior to 2012, Dr. Kass served as Senior Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS). She was responsible for the high-level assessments and analyses necessary to render the best military advice and execute the integrated strategies, programs, and plans essential to America’s security. Her contributions were recognized by both the Secretary of Defense and CJCS. She received the Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award – the highest award granted to U.S. Government civilian employees.

Dr. Kass also served as the Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force (CSAF), Senior Mentor to USAF Project CHECKMATE, and Director of the Cyber Task Force. She developed the intellectual concepts that led to the establishment of the U.S. Cyber Command and continue to underpin U.S. cyber strategy. She was awarded the prestigious Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service by both the Secretary of the Air Force and CSAF.

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Marc Wortman, PhD, is an independent historian and freelance journalist. He is the author of four books on American military and social history, most recently Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power (Yale University Press, 2022), which was named a National Review Book of the Year and received an honorable mention for the John Lyman Award in biography from the North American Society for Oceanic History. His other books are 1941: Fighting the Shadow War, A Divided America in a World at War (Atlantic Monthly, 2016); The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta (PublicAffairs, 2009), and The Millionaires’ Unit: The Aristocratic Flyboys Who Fought the Great War and Invented American Air Power (PublicAffairs, 2006). A multi-prize-winning feature-length documentary based on The Millionaires’ Unit is available on streaming services.

The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived: Tom Watson Jr. and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age (PublicAffairs), the first solo biography of the leader who launched the information technology revolution, will be published in October 2023. ​

As an award-winning freelance journalist, Marc has written for many publications, including Vanity Fair, Smithsonian, Rolling Stone, Time, and The Daily Beast. He has spoken to audiences around the country and has appeared on CNN, NPR, C-SPAN BookTV, History Channel, CuriosityStream and other broadcast and streaming outlets. He has taught at Princeton, Quinnipiac University and a college program at a maximum-security prison. He was the recipient of a New York Public Library Research Fellowship and was the 2014 Jalonick Memorial Distinguished Lecturer on Aviation History at the University of Texas Dallas. He is a fellow of Yale University’s Davenport College.Following college at Brown University, he received a doctorate in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. He lives with his family in New Haven.

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Dr. Rajeswari (Raji) Pillai Rajagopalan is the Director of the Centre for Security, Strategy & Technology (CSST) at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in Canberra. In 2020, she was Co-chair for a thematic group on “Strategic Technologies” for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020) work, attached to the Office of Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India and Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Dr. Rajagopalan was the Technical Advisor to the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Prevention of Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) (July 2018-July 2019). She was also a Non-Resident Indo-Pacific Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre from April-December 2020. As a senior Asia defense writer for The Diplomat, she writes a weekly column on Asian strategic issues. Dr. Rajagopalan joined ORF after a five-year stint at the National Security Council Secretariat (2003-2007), Government of India, where she was an Assistant Director. Prior to joining the NSCS, she was Research Officer at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. She was also a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Politics, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan in 2012.

Dr. Rajagopalan has authored/ co-authored or edited more than ten books including ORF-Global Policy Journal Special Issue, Future Warfare and Technology: Issues and Strategies (2022), Military Ambitions and Competition in Space: The Role of Alliances (2021), Global Nuclear Security: Moving Beyond the NSS (2018), Space Policy 2.0 (2017), Nuclear Security in India (2015), Clashing Titans: Military Strategy and Insecurity among Asian Great Powers (2012), The Dragon's Fire: Chinese Military Strategy and Its Implications for Asia (2009). She has published research essays in edited volumes, and in peer reviewed journals such as India Review, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Air and Space Power Journal, International Journal of Nuclear Law and Strategic Analysis. She has also contributed essays to newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Times of India, and The Economic Times. She has been invited to speak at international fora including the United Nations Disarmament Forum (New York), the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) (Vienna), Conference on Disarmament (Geneva), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the European Union.

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For the past 40 years, Tom Ramos has been a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). For the past few years Tom has been conducting research and writing a history of the early years of the Cold War, and the nuclear weapons program of LLNL. Through interviews with historical figures and with extensive research into top secret archives, he has brought out new perspectives of the Cold War that have been little understood until now. His efforts were rewarded with the publication of his book, From Berkeley to Berlin.

Tom created several programs in the 1990s that served the Defense Department. Most notable among them, starting with a $200K grant, Tom created the Counterproliferation Analysis and Planning System (CAPS), which helped military operators analyze facilities manufacturing weapons of mass destruction in hostile countries. The program grew into a $46M a year enterprise and was declared to be the Defense Department’s premier counterproliferation program by Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Another significant program that Tom started was the Homeland Defense Operational Planning System (HOPS), a program like CAPS, but steered towards analyses to protect America’s critical infrastructure.

In the 1980’s Tom was a nuclear weapons designer in the Laboratory’s X-Ray Laser Program, which supported President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. In the program’s last nuclear test, Tom led a team of physicists who designed the program’s brightest laser. In the late 1980s Tom joined a committee helping to prepare the government for START negotiations and he prepared a daily summary sheet for the Secretary of Energy to use at NSC meetings on the resumption of START Talks. Later Tom was assigned to the Pentagon as the legislative affairs officer for the Congressionally mandated Nuclear Weapons Council. Tom’s duties included preparing the Council for Congressional hearings.

Prior to joining the Laboratory, and after graduating from West Point and MIT, Tom served as a combat engineer and was later an associate professor of physics at West Point, New York, where he taught each of the physics department’s core courses, as well as electives in Quantum Mechanics and Nuclear Physics.

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For the past 40 years, Tom Ramos has been a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). For the past few years Tom has been conducting research and writing a history of the early years of the Cold War, and the nuclear weapons program of LLNL. Through interviews with historical figures and with extensive research into top secret archives, he has brought out new perspectives of the Cold War that have been little understood until now. His efforts were rewarded with the publication of his book, From Berkeley to Berlin.

Tom created several programs in the 1990s that served the Defense Department. Most notable among them, starting with a $200K grant, Tom created the Counterproliferation Analysis and Planning System (CAPS), which helped military operators analyze facilities manufacturing weapons of mass destruction in hostile countries. The program grew into a $46M a year enterprise and was declared to be the Defense Department’s premier counterproliferation program by Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Another significant program that Tom started was the Homeland Defense Operational Planning System (HOPS), a program like CAPS, but steered towards analyses to protect America’s critical infrastructure.

In the 1980’s Tom was a nuclear weapons designer in the Laboratory’s X-Ray Laser Program, which supported President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. In the program’s last nuclear test, Tom led a team of physicists who designed the program’s brightest laser. In the late 1980s Tom joined a committee helping to prepare the government for START negotiations and he prepared a daily summary sheet for the Secretary of Energy to use at NSC meetings on the resumption of START Talks. Later Tom was assigned to the Pentagon as the legislative affairs officer for the Congressionally mandated Nuclear Weapons Council. Tom’s duties included preparing the Council for Congressional hearings.

Prior to joining the Laboratory, and after graduating from West Point and MIT, Tom served as a combat engineer and was later an associate professor of physics at West Point, New York, where he taught each of the physics department’s core courses, as well as electives in Quantum Mechanics and Nuclear Physics.

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As Raft’s Senior Director of Data and AI, Angela Sheffield leads programs to build software, data, and AI solutions to deliver information and decision dominance in all operations conditions and all warfighting domains.

Before joining Raft, Ms. Sheffield served as the Senior Program Manager for AI at the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy. In that role, she led programs to advance the science of AI and develop novel capabilities to detect and deter nuclear weapons proliferation for mission partners in the DoD, Intelligence Community, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State.

Ms. Sheffield began her career as an active-duty Air Force officer with assignments in directed energy weapons research and development with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing and technical intelligence at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. Ms. Sheffield joined DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a senior scientist, where she led major initiatives to develop advanced data and AI techniques to counter terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The approaches she pioneered, such as the use of AI to lower detection thresholds and reveal indicators and warnings in nontraditional data sources, are now central to U.S. strategy to reduce nuclear and WMD threats. An internationally recognized expert in AI for science, engineering, and national security, Ms. Sheffield was recently appointed as the first-ever subject matter expert to the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board.

Angie has a B.S. in Economics from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an M.S. in Operations Research from Kansas State University. She is a war college graduate with an M.S. in National Security and Resource Strategy from the National Defense University Eisenhower School.

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Dr. Howard Hall is the Director for the UT Institute for Nuclear Security. He holds a joint appointment with Consolidated Nuclear Security (Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN, and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, TX), and serves as Professor in both the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the Bredesen Center For Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education. Professor Hall is also a Senior Fellow in Global Security Policy at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee.

Professor Hall received his Ph.D. in Nuclear and Radiochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989; and his BS in Chemistry from the College of Charleston in 1985. Prior to joining UT, Dr. Hall spent more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California, where he led major scientific and operational missions in nuclear and homeland security. During his tenure at LLNL, Dr. Hall led efforts supporting US Government programs in aviation safety and security, nuclear threat detection and nuclear emergency response.

In 2005, Dr. Hall was part of the team awarded the Department of Homeland Security/Science and Technology Directorate Under Secretary's Award for Science. Professor Hall is a member of the American Nuclear Society, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Society for Engineering Education, the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, and holds the rank of Fellow in the American Institute of Chemists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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James Stemm has been Curator at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History since 2021. He began his museum career in 1996 working with the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona as the museum’s Registrar. He remained at Pima for the next twenty-five years while holding several jobs in the museum’s Collections Department including Assistant Curator, Curator of Collections, and Director of Collections. James attended The University of New Mexico where he received a bachelor’s degree in history and attended graduate school at New Mexico State University receiving a master’s degree in public history.

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