Nazia Zakir provides leadership and vision in managing Argonne’s environment, safety, and health (ESH) initiatives to support the Laboratory’s mission and enable exemplary safety performance. She leads a laboratory-wide environmental, safety, and health program encompassing best practices, certifications, standards, guidance, procedures, and management systems. She also manages Argonne’s Fire Department, Office of Emergency Management, and Health and Wellness Program, which includes the Occupational Medical Clinic.

Nazia is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion, earning several awards for her work in the field. She regularly participates in mentoring programs.

Before coming to Argonne in September 2022, Nazia led strategy and compliance within infrastructure and sustainability at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), to advance safety programs and policies to support GT’s innovative research. During her 20-year career at the institute, Nazia worked as a Health Physicist, Radiation Safety Officer, and Assistant Vice President of EHS, and she held several positions related to research safety, environmental health and safety, and facilities. She led significant transformations of GT’s facilities and safety culture, and worked with campus leaders to coordinate their COVID-19 response.

Nazia has been Rules Chair and Parliamentarian of the National Health Physics Society; a member of the National Health Physics Society Rules Committee; Chair of the Advocacy Council of the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association; and President of the Atlanta Health Physics Society. She was part of audit teams that examined the National High Magnetic Field Lab and the University of Maryland Reactor.

Nazia earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and a master’s degree in environmental sciences from Rutgers University. She also worked at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and Teledyne Isotopes.