Steven Tibrea - 2011
MHS 1978 Graduate
Steven L. Tibrea, class of 1978, was nominated by Michael Gallina. In his nomination letter Gallina quotes Benjamin Disraili, "Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think." This is what Gallina believes has led Tibrea to levels of ultimate distinction in his field of engineering. Gallina goes on to write, "There is not a more reflective, studious, nor humble person in this world than Steve Tibrea. His work with DuPont, Westinghouse, The Washington Group, URS, and Northrop Grumman is simply amazing. He has literally overseen work that has affected Homeland Security (nuclear materials detection and shipping/storage containers for legacy nuclear materials), the National Security Agency (ultra secure wireless communication), and the National Institute of Justice Law Enforcement Agency (standardized law enforcement technologies with regard to data systems). In a word, Wow!"
Tibrea holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University. He has over twenty-eight years of engineering and technical management experience, and is currently the Director of Research and Development Engineering at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) research community. He is past manager of the SRNL Robotics Section, and the Instrumentation Development Section. He is a co-inventor of a patented innovative encapsulation method for nuclear waste materials, and was featured on a segment of the television's History Channel episode of "Modern Marvels" highlighting technology associated with canning nuclear materials.
At SRNL, Tibrea directs and oversees the activities of over 115 engineers, technicians and specialists who design develop, integrate, and deploy unique systems to serve the U.S. Department of Energy and other Federal Agency programs in the areas of national and homeland security, energy security and environmental cleanup and nuclear materials disposition.
Some highlights of his accomplishments during his management tenure with SRNL engineering are: He developed and deployed automated equipment to safely isolate and store Plutonium for future processing into fuel for U.S. nuclear reactors; developed first response capability to address characterization and attribution needs for a domestic nuclear terror event, deployed unique precision instrumentation for the measurement and accountability of Plutonium in Japan, Austria, and Russia; developed and deployed custom imaging systems to NASA White Sands, Oak Ridge National Lab, and the DOE's Hanford facility in Washington State; and deployed SRNL engineering experts to the International Thermonuclear Reactor projects in Japan and France.
In his local community, Tibrea serves on the Advisory Board to the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Deptartment and is a Board Member for the non-profit organization, Enabletech, which provides unique devices to assist the handicapped. He is a founding organizer of the Aiken County FIRST Robotics program. He has served as School Board Secretary for Mead Hall, the primary and middle school of St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church.
Tibrea and his wife Lisi live in Aiken, South Carolina. They are the parents of two college-age sons, Andrew and Charlie.