• 2020 Luminary Award Winner•
Oscar A.
Martinez, Ph.D.
Package Testing Program Manager / Test Director and Mechanical Engineer
Used Fuel Systems Group
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Dr. Martinez is the Program Manager for Oak Ridge National Laboratory ’s Package Testing Program and a mechanical and aerospace engineer with subject matter expertise in thermal-mechanical engineering analysis in the Used Fuel Systems Group.
Oak Ridge has been known as the premier laboratory for testing packages for transportation of radioactive material since 1955, and Dr. Martinez has continued and improved the reputation and capabilities of the Package Testing Program. An exceptional engineer, Dr. Martinez has already left an indelible impression on his colleagues since his arrival at ORNL in 2011.
His primary research interests are in solid mechanics, structural analysis, explicit dynamic computational modeling, mechanical testing of hazardous material shipping containers, and transportation of radioactive material shipping containers.
It’s a remarkable accomplishment when you consider that Dr. Martinez arrived in the United States as a war refugee from Nicaragua without a word of English before he was 5-years-old.
Having since earned a bachelors, a masters and a doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Dr. Martinez credits the STEM field for allowing him opportunities that he could never have imagined when he was an immigrant child watching his father work as a mechanic at Pan American Airways hangers in Miami.