Jaclyn Schmitt first joined the Institute for Defense Analyses’ Nuclear Strategy and Policy Portfolio in 2020 as a summer associate, then returned as a full-time research staff member in 2022. Her work focuses on U.S. nuclear force structure and programmatic decisions and on nuclear enterprise data management and data-informed decision-making. Jaclyn earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from Clemson University, and she completed her graduate studies in nuclear physics at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (now the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams) at Michigan State University. Her graduate work focused on the study of the structure of exotic atomic nuclei via nuclear charge-exchange reactions. She also participated in the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program, supporting the development of novel neutron detectors at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

William J. Peck is a Research and Development Engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the Modern Manufacturing Methodologies Group. At LANL, William is the Risk Manger for the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) Accelerator Modernization Project (LAMP). His other responsibilities include systems engineering for Advanced Sources and Detectors (ASD) Scorpius, and surveillance engineering for the plutonium mission. Prior to working at LANL, William was a software engineer for the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University (ARL PSU) where he developed front-end software interfaces to support naval shipbuilding. While at Penn State, William completed his PhD in Industrial Engineering where his dissertation focused on the development of cloud manufacturing platforms to centralize manufacturing resources and capabilities. At LANL, his research focuses on the creation of Artificial Intelligence tools to aid in manufacturing decision making through the creation of metamodels and computer vision algorithms.

Clara Sherwood is an acting Program Officer at the U.S. Department of State and a graduate student at George Washington University. Previously, she was a New Voices on Nuclear Weapons Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists studying the relationship between social media and nuclear escalation. Clara is also a Fulbright Morocco alum, former Hiroshima ICAN Academy participant, and a two-time recipient of the U.S. State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship in Arabic. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington & Jefferson College, earning a triple major in international studies, Spanish, and music. Her research interests include the Middle East, the relationship between public opinion and nuclear decision-making, and how emerging technologies can enhance nonproliferation efforts.