Science is a dynamic process. As society’s needs evolve, so must the research institutions charged with addressing those needs.
In May 2020, as ORNL was settling in with the rest of the country for the disruption of a long global pandemic, Laboratory Director Thomas Zacharia called on the ORNL community to reimagine itself — to assess and adjust the lab’s agenda to best answer the research needs of the coming generation. To achieve this goal, the lab also needed to attract the next generation’s best talents and to attain the organizational agility to support them.
ORNL’s major directorates are organized with an eye toward specific disciplines: engineering, physical sciences (i.e., chemistry and materials science), computing, neutron science, nuclear science, biological sciences and national security. The associate laboratory directors who lead those directorates are responsible for guiding ORNL’s research enterprise.
Zacharia and his leadership team held a comprehensive appraisal of the laboratory’s complex organization. This process acknowledged that while the science landscape often undergoes a slow, seemingly tectonic transformation as missions evolve, the map may also exhibit marked change over a relatively short time.
At the same time the leadership team began evaluating its scientific posture, an emergent national reckoning of attitudes toward race, gender and equality likewise had its influence on the Reimagining initiative. Exclusion deprives a research institution of talent and innovation. ORNL, Zacharia said, should be a laboratory that is inviting for all.
Reimagining ORNL uncovered opportunities to better address the country’s most pressing scientific needs. Singular focus on the laboratory’s isotopes mission has given its nuclear operations a new momentum. The ultimate reward of fusion energy research and the fission resources within our reach are vital elements of the overall energy economy. Earth sciences and climate research are taking on increasing urgency. And building and transportation engineering hold economic promise as well as environmental importance as the nation assesses a revitalization of its infrastructure.
As a result of this process, the number of the laboratory’s research directorates grew from six to eight to allow ORNL to focus more precisely on its goals of becoming the world’s premier research institution and supporting U.S. economic growth and national security.
One year later, the lineup of ALDs is much changed from the group that reimagined the lab in 2020. Of the eight ALDs profiled in this section, two are brand new to ORNL. Four are women. Only two have been at ORNL for more than a decade. The new ALDs were selected from across the nation and from extremely competitive pools.
All hail from research and development environments, and all enjoy impressive stature in the scientific community.
We hope you enjoy the following introductions to the scientific leaders who will be guiding ORNL into the future: ALDs Ken Andersen, Deb Frincke, Cynthia Jenks, Kathy McCarthy, Jeff Nichols, Xin Sun, Balendra Sutharshan and Stan Wullschleger. We will be expecting much from them in the coming years. — Bill Cabage
