William J Weber

William J Weber

UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair Professor in Radiation Effects in Materials at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Director of the UT-ORNL Ion Beam Materials Laboratory

Dr. William J. Weber is currently the UT-ORNL Governor’s Chair Professor in Radiation Effects in Materials at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Director of the UT-ORNL Ion Beam Materials Laboratory. He received his B.S. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh in 1971, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1972 and 1977, respectively. From 1977 to 2010, he was at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), where he was appointed Laboratory Fellow in 1997 and served as Chair of the PNNL Council of Fellows from 2005 to 2009. In 1983, he was a visiting scientist at the Institute for Transuranium Elements in Karlsruhe, Germany, and from 1989 to 1993, he was on a special assignment at the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy.

Dr. Weber’s research interests are the experimental and theoretical aspects of radiation and charged-particle interaction with solids, radiation effects in solids, ion-beam and electron-beam modification of materials, defects and defect/property relationships in ceramics, long-term performance of nuclear waste materials, physics of radiation detectors, electronic and ionic transport, properties of nanostructures, and microstructural characterization. His current research is focused on the response of materials to extreme environments, the use of non-equilibrium processes to create novel nanostructures and new functionalities in materials, and understanding the role of energy dissipation to the electronic structure on defect and nanostructure evolution in advanced ceramics and alloys.

Dr. Weber has over 600 publications, with over 13,000 citations and an H-index of 56. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award (1983) and Distinguished Alumni Award (2009) from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh; the U. S. Department of Energy's Materials Science Award for Research with Significant Implication for DOE Related Technologies (1995); the PNNL Laboratory Director’s Award for Individual Lifetime Achievement in Science & Technology (2009); the PNNL Director's Award for Scientific and Engineering Excellence (1995); and the PNNL Chester L. Cooper Mentor of the Year Award (2005). In 2001, his work on developing radiation-resistant ceramics was recognized by the DOE, Office of Science - Decades of Discovery as one of the top 101 innovations during the previous 25 years. He has chaired numerous international conferences, society symposia, and topical workshops. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (2000), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2006), the Materials Research Society (inaugural class, 2008), and the American Physical Society (2010). He is a member of Sigma Xi, Sigma Pi Sigma, and International Committees for Radiation Effects in Insulators, Computer Simulation of Radiation Effects in Solids, and Ion Beam Modification of Materials. He previously served on the editorial board for Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B (2003-2008) and currently serves as a Principal Editor for the Journal of Materials Research (2002-present).