R. Allen Roach

R. Allen Roach is currently the director of the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Initiative and the department manager of the Irradiated Fuels and Materials department at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Allen joined INL in November 2019. Prior to becoming department manager at INL, he was Distinguished Staff Scientist and director for the Nuclear Materials Discovery and Qualification initiative (NMDQi). Allen started his career at PPG Industries in the Fiber Glass Research Center in Pittsburgh, PA where he worked for 5 years in the advanced engineering group. From 1999 to 2019 he was a technical staff member and department manager at Sandia National Labs where he worked in a variety of roles ranging from finite element code development to component design, testing, and manufacturing. From 2016 to 2018, Allen led Sandia’s “Born Qualified” Grand Challenge Laboratory Directed Research and Development project with the goal to use additive manufacturing to change the qualification paradigm for low-volume, high-value, high-consequence, complex parts. He has expertise and publications in materials for advanced nuclear reactors, multi-physics manufacturing processes including additive/advanced manufacturing, laser welds, flows in rigid and deformable porous media, corrosion, and high temperature processes including electroslag remelting and large-scale glass flows. Allen holds BS and MS degrees in Aerospace Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (1994). Allen and his wife Michelle have 3 children, daughter Ashley is pursuing her PhD in materials science at University of California at Santa Barbara, daughter Emily graduated with her BS in Psychology from the University of New Mexico and currently resides in Idaho Falls Idaho where she works as a Judicial Clerk, and son Matthew is pursuing his PhD in mechanical engineering at University of Tennessee.