Derek is a member of the Security Systems Analysis & Testing group within the Strategic Security Sciences Division at Argonne National Laboratory. His research focuses primarily on dissolution and analytical method development for nuclear forensics. He is also active on projects developing radiochemical separation procedures for medical isotopes like Sc-47 and Cu-67, and has contributed to several radiation detector testing campaigns carried out at Argonne.

Derek joined Argonne full time as a Postdoctoral Appointee in 2016 and was converted to staff in 2018. He earned his Ph.D. in Radiochemistry from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 2016 and his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in 2011.