David Shafer

Since July 2021, Dr. David Shafer has served as the Technical Director for Long-Term Stewardship for the DOE Office of Legacy Management (LM). In this position he focuses on incorporating advances in science and technology into LM’s long-term surveillance and maintenance efforts and other activities; enhances collaborations with national laboratories, universities, and other agencies; and oversees LM’s international programs. During the last year he focused on assessing climate change at LM sites and potential impacts on environmental remedies, such as landfills, disposal cells, and areas of groundwater contamination. For the International Atomic Energy Agency, he is helping LM contribute to a new safety guide on long-term stewardship. Shafer joined LM in 2011, first as supervisor of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act /Nevada Offsites Environment team and the Grand Junction, Colorado, Office manager. He has also been the supervisor of the Asset Management team, the director of the Office of Business Operations, and served five years as the deputy director for Site Operations prior to moving into his current role.

Before joining LM, Shafer was an associate research professor at the Desert Research Institute of the Nevada System of Higher Education. At DRI, he managed its research program for DOE and established and managed the Center for Environmental Remediation and Monitoring that included research projects and programs for the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and universities and national labs in China and Australia. His work experience includes employment with DOE from 1989 to 1998, during creation of the Environmental Management Program, which included working on the remediation of several sites in the western United States that are now managed by LM; taught in the Geology Department of Colgate University (1984 and 1985), and was a seasonal ranger for the National Park Service (1981-1988). He earned his doctoral degree in geosciences and quaternary sciences at the University of Arizona in 1989.