Jeanne Jackson DeVoe

December 16, 2024

Title & Department: Quality Assurance Program Manager, Planning Assurance and Contract Management

Year started at PPPL: 2018 

While engineers and technicians are designing and building components for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s (PPPL) main fusion experiment, the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U), Andres Castaneda and his team are behind the scenes ensuring procedures are followed, and the work is of the highest quality. 

Castaneda is the manager of PPPL’s Quality Assurance (QA) Program and has supported the NSTX-U Recovery Project since he began work at PPPL in 2018. He continues to serve as the liaison between the project and the QA team. The QA team also supports PPPL’s other experiments, including the Facility for Laboratory Reconnection Experiments, which is currently being upgraded.
 

Oversaw preparation of copper conductors in Italy

Castaneda spent 10 weeks in Italy in 2019 overseeing the preparation of copper conductors that were used to create two sets of three magnets called poloidal field coil magnets at the top and bottom of the center stack of the NSTX-U. These magnets help shape the plasma in fusion experiments. He received a SPOT Award at PPPL recognizing his work. 

The QA team has helped to assess numerous other components for the NSTX-U. When PPPL purchased some 1,500 graphite tiles that line the inside of the machine to protect its walls during fusion experiments, for example, the QA team used a blue light scanner to detect any defects in the tiles. The QA team is also responsible for supporting the assessments PPPL is required to perform as a national laboratory and is tasked with overseeing the resolution of any findings and recommendations. 

“I like that QA is involved in many activities across the Lab,” Castaneda said. “We get to interface with many different departments, and we get to facilitate and support many different aspects of the work the Lab does. It gives us a great opportunity to learn the inner workings of the Lab and uniquely positions us to be able to support various groups in their efforts.” 

Castaneda has spent most of his career as a QA professional. He was a quality manager for the aerospace k-Technology Division of Aavid Thermacore Co. (now Boyd) for four years before coming to PPPL. Prior to that, he worked for Turbotec Products, Inc. for five years in the commercial HVAC industry. 

Castaneda was promoted to QA program manager at PPPL in 2022 after serving five months as an interim manager. His staff has since doubled with Castaneda now overseeing six staff members.
 

An international childhood 

Castaneda moved frequently as a child. His mother is a linguist from Russia, and his father is a mathematics college professor from Colombia. Castaneda and his family lived in Russia until he was 4 and then Colombia until he was 10. After the family moved to the U.S., they lived in Bloomington, Indiana; Ithaca, New York; and West Hartford, Connecticut.

Castaneda earned a mechanical engineering degree with a minor in mathematics at Tulane University. He is a certified quality engineer and quality auditor through the American Society for Quality. He was a fellow of the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program in 2023. 

Castaneda and his wife, Sofia, an information technology project manager, live in Princeton, New Jersey. They have a 26-year-old son who lives in Maryland.

Supporting staff to understand QA requirements 

“I am responsible for stewarding the issues management program and the QA program across the Laboratory. One thing we do in QA is to support staff in understanding the requirements that exist for any task, so we can facilitate getting things done correctly and efficiently, proactively prevent issues and also resolve any problems that may arise.”
 

What does safety mean to you?  

“Safety is important to me because our health is the most important thing in life. None of what we are doing is worth it if someone gets hurt. Quality assurance helps to keep people safe by ensuring that requirements are satisfied. If the quality of a component is deficient, that could lead to an incident where someone may get hurt.”
 

Three things about yourself:

1. “I’m an avid chess player and a U.S. Chess Federation national master.” 
    
2. “I love to play basketball.” 
    
3. “I have a Maine Coon cat named ‘Lumi,’ who kind of runs the house.”

What does working at PPPL mean to you?

“Working at PPPL means that I get to support the Lab’s mission, which is potentially world changing. Fusion is a clean source of energy, and that is very impactful. I am proud to work here. I get to work closely with so many brilliant people. I feel like I learn by osmosis that way.”