physics

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lisa Gordon-Hagerty rather than just read about it. In short: Lisa Ellen Gordon-Hagerty is an American scientist and former government official who served as the under secretary of energy for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Earlier in her career, she had served in various other leadership positions in the Department of Energy and the National Security Council.

Key takeaways

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lisa Gordon-Hagerty from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Lisa Ellen Gordon-Hagerty is an American scientist and former government official who served as the under secretary of energy for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Earlier in her career, she had served in various other leadership positions in the Department of Energy and the National Security Council.

Education Gordon-Hagerty graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science in 1983 and a Master of Public Health in health physics in 1986. During her graduate studies, she worked at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site.

Career After graduation, she worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She then moved to Washington, D.C., to join the staff of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce. She then spent six years in the Department of Energy as the director of the Office of Emergency Response and acting director of the Office of Weapons Surety. As director of the Office of Emergency Response, she had authority to activate the Nuclear Emergency Search Team, which led The Washington Times to compare her to a "female James Bond". In July 1998, she became director of the White House Office of Combating Terrorism under the National Security Council. She was appointed during the Clinton administration and remained in the position into the Bush administration. She was closely involved in its response to the September 11 attacks, and was present in the White House compound during the attacks. She then served in several positions in the private sector. From 2003 to 2005, she was executive vice president and COO of United States Enrichment Corporation. She then was president of consulting firm Tier Tech International and president and CEO of consulting firm LEG. She was named to Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in 2004, 2005 and 2006. She also served on the board of experts for the Federation of American Scientists. Gordon-Hagerty was appointed by President Donald Trump as under secretary of energy for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 15, 2018 and was sworn in on February 22, 2018. In September 2019, she was named as one of five finalists for national security advisor after the resignation of John Bolton, although the position ultimately went to Robert C. O'Brien. On November 6, 2020, she resigned from her positions, reportedly due to longstanding tensions and disagreements with Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. In December 2020, it was announced that Gordon-Hagerty would be appointed to the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee. Gordon-Hagerty has been appointed to the board of directors of Visible Assets as of March 2021. In April 2026, Gordon-Hagerty was elected to RAND's Board of Trustees.

Personal life During a congressional committee hearing, Representative Curt Weldon compared Gordon-Hagerty to a character in the 1997 thriller The Peacemaker, a counterterrorism director portrayed by Nicole Kidman. She was reportedly underwhelmed by this, quoted as jokingly saying "I have more important things to do than advise Nicole Kidman." In 2007, she married Walter Houston, the founder and CEO of Tier Tech International.

References

External links Appearances on C-SPAN

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lisa Gordon-Hagerty

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lisa Gordon-Hagerty claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lisa Gordon-Hagerty before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lisa Gordon-Hagerty ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lisa Gordon-Hagerty

In research: Lisa Gordon-Hagerty appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lisa Gordon-Hagerty in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lisa Gordon-Hagerty is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American physicists, 21st-century American women civil servants, 21st-century American women physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lisa Gordon-Hagerty outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lisa Gordon-Hagerty in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lisa Gordon-Hagerty means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lisa Gordon-Hagerty out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lisa Gordon-Hagerty in simple terms?

Why does Lisa Gordon-Hagerty matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lisa Gordon-Hagerty?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lisa Gordon-Hagerty.