In the mid-1980s, Balendra Sutharshan moved to Canada from the island nation of Sri Lanka.
That move set Sutharshan on a path that had him heading continent-spanning collaborations and holding leadership posts at multiple DOE national labs. In February, he joined ORNL as the associate laboratory director for the Isotope Science and Engineering Directorate.
The directorate is charged with producing unique isotopes for various uses, developing enrichment technology and operating ORNL’s nuclear facilities. The broad science portfolio for ISED includes developing ways to make tough-to-produce materials such as plutoniun-238 to power NASA’s deep space missions.
Leading such a complex directorate requires expertise and vision. Sutharshan first began developing those qualities not in a radiological lab or at a nuclear reactor, but under the Golden Arches.
“I arrived in Canada and started working at McDonald’s, making $4 an hour,” Sutharshan said with a chuckle. “It was an experience that gave me the drive to seek the very best education, place my focus into my studies and work toward building the kind of life I wanted.”
After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, Sutharshan landed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study nuclear engineering. There he witnessed firsthand the life-altering power of isotopes.
While studying boron neutron capture therapy, he helped build a machine for early clinical trials to treat cancer. The goal was to deliver the right isotope to the right target, where it would emit a burst of radiation and kill cancerous cells. Finding the most accurate way to do that was the challenge.
“We know through numerous studies how promising medical isotopes are in treating cancer,” he said. “But we’ve not advanced very far in the last three decades in accurately targeting the tumor site.”
After graduating from MIT, he spent nearly two decades at Westinghouse Electric Co., guiding nuclear plant design around the globe. In the process, he said, he experienced many cultures before returning to the U.S. for leadership positions at Argonne and Pacific Northwest national laboratories.
“Thanks to living around the United States and working in nearly 20 countries, I have seen the importance of diversity and inclusion,” he said. “If you have the right composition of people — cultivated by an organization that truly believes in diversity and inclusion — it creates an organic and competitive environment that can’t be beaten.”
Those experiences are already influencing the way he is building ISED. Sutharshan is excited about ISED’s existing capabilities and has a compelling vision for expanding the organization’s impact.
“If we put our minds to it, we can change the world and develop new ways to use these isotopes — from eradicating cancer to providing clean energy,” he said.
“What greater impact is there on society if we can deliver on those promises?” — Jason Ellis
