Njema Frazier

Njema Frazier (born in San Francisco, California on March 13, 1974) is a nuclear physicist at the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in Washington, D.C.

Frazier has a bachelor's degree in physics from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in nuclear physics from Michigan State University.

She is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). While at MSU, she worked at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Lab (NSCL) focusing on "Properties of Shell-Model Wavefunctions at High Excitation Energies."

Career After receiving her Ph.D., she worked as a professional staff member for the Committee on Science at the U.S. House of Representatives for four years. Dr. Frasier then started her career at the NNSA, working as a nuclear physicist from 2001 to 2016. She has also been an active member of the National Society of Black Engineers and served as National Alumni Chair in 2008 and National Leadership Institute Chairperson from 2010 to 2012.

At the NNSA, Dr. Frazier has held multiple positions, such as the acting director of the International Program Management Division, Acting Deputy Director of the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Division, and acting director of the Office of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF). In these divisions, she has worked on improving scientific knowledge for high energy density physics (HEDP) in relation to weapons. Dr. Frazier has helped ensure the continued safe maintenance of nuclear weapon stockpiles.

As a senior scientist in the Defense Science Division, Dr. Njema Frazier leads the upkeep and organization of weapons-related science activities without needing to conduct explosive nuclear testing at Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Sandia National Laboratories.

While working in the NNSA, Dr. Frazier has also served as a visiting professor at the National Defense University and created her own consulting company: Diversity Science, to create connections between science subject matter experts with those hiring in the public and private sector in order to get a more diverse applicant pool.

Awards and honors

2018 Alumni Achievement Award Spotlight from CMU The Grio's List of 100 History Makers in the Making The Essence Power List The Black Engineer of the Year