Kemal Pasamehmetoglu is a nonresident senior fellow at the Nuclear Energy Policy Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. He retired from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in January 2023, where he served since 2004. Pasamehmetoglu continues to serve in the Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee that reviews the Office of Nuclear Energy’s programs and provides advice to the assistant secretary of energy. Internationally, Pasamehmetoglu chairs the Nuclear Science Committee under the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development, Nuclear Energy Agency.

Before retiring from the INL, he served as the executive director for the Versatile Test Reactor Project. Prior to that position, Pasamehmetoglu served as the associate laboratory director for the Nuclear Science & Technology Directorate between 2012 and 2017. He was instrumental in the launch of the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative and initially served as the director for the initiative after its inception. Pasamehmetoglu also served as the national technical director for advanced fuels research and development in the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative while also serving as the nuclear fuels and materials division director at INL between 2005 and 2012. During his tenure in those roles, he focused on transforming nuclear fuels research and development capabilities in the nation and at INL into world-leading endeavors. Prior to his time at INL, he held senior technical leadership positions at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked between 1986 and 2004. He started his career working on light-water reactor safety research.

He holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Central Florida and has more than thirty-six years of research and engineering experience within the Department of Energy National Laboratories.