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Thursday, April 4, 2013

ORNL gets new S&T head

ORNL gets new S&T head


Mason's announcement is striking compared to when LANL recently filled a comparable position. Oak Ridge gets a nationally recognized leader that has lots of personal research accomplishments as well as good experience in DC. Los Alamos promotes another of their insiders and tells everyone it is the best that they can find.


I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Ramamoorthy Ramesh of the University of California, Berkeley as my Deputy for Science and Technology effective June 1, 2013. Ramesh will also hold an appointment as a Governor’s Chair Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.



Ramesh has an exceptional record of accomplishment in fields that are well aligned with ORNL’s current scientific thrusts. In particular, he is internationally recognized for his work on complex multifunctional oxide thin films, nanostructures, and heterostructures. He has published more than 400 papers in areas spanning magnetic materials, recording materials, magnetic and magnetoresistive metal oxides, high-temperature superconductors, ferroelectrics, dielectrics, piezoelectrics and relaxors, semiconductor heterostructures, and advanced transmission electron microscopy techniques applied to materials characterization. These papers have been cited more than 35,000 times, making him one of the world's most highly cited researchers. Ramesh was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 in recognition of his contributions to the science and technology of functional complex oxide materials.



In addition, Ramesh has been a driving force in moving innovation to the marketplace, most recently as the director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative and Solar Energy Technologies Program. In this capacity he set the science and technology agenda for SunShot, established funding priorities, and oversaw solar research and development activities at the Department’s national laboratories. His management experience in this and other roles, including director of the Berkeley Nanoscience and Nanoengineering Institute and the Singapore-Berkeley Research Institute for Sustainable Energy, will be a valuable asset in our continuing development and execution of multidisciplinary research initiatives that are focused on delivering outcomes.


Ramesh received a B.S. in chemistry in 1980 from Madras University, Madras, India, and a Ph.D. in materials science from UC Berkeley in 1987. He currently holds the Purnendu Chatterjee Endowed Chair in Energy Technologies in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he is also on the faculty of the Department of Physics. In addition, he serves as a Faculty Senior Scientist, Materials Sciences Division, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.



Ramesh recently returned to Berkeley after serving as the Director of the SunShot Initiative, working directly for the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu. Earlier, Ramesh served as Associate Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at UC Berkeley. He was previously a distinguished professor at the University of Maryland and a member of the technical staff at Bell Communications Research.



Ramesh has organized a number of international conferences and symposia, and he has served on the editorial boards of Applied Physics Letters, Integrated Ferroelectrics, the Journal of Applied Physics, the Journal of Materials Research, and the Journal of Electroceramics. In 2001, he was awarded the Humboldt Senior Scientist Prize, the A. James Clark School of Engineering Faculty Outstanding Research Award, and Fellowship in the American Physical Society (APS). In 2006, he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was selected to present the David Turnbull Lecture to the Materials Research Society (MRS) in 2007 and was elected MRS Fellow in 2009. Ramesh was also awarded the 2010 APS James C. McGroddy New Materials Prize.

Thom

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

LANL consistently promotes from within. They're very incestuous. The only time they look outside of LANL is when they need a Director or Weapons PAD (always from LLNL) or some facilities management position (always from Bechtel).

They'll carry on a charade about looking outside for "the best possible candidate" and then.... surprise, surprise, "We found the best candidate for this management position and he was right here at LANL!". Right. It's an Old Boys & Girls Club. It shocking when you see some of the poor scientific credentials for large segments of LANL's current management team.

ORNL, on the other hand, appears to look for management candidates with true status in the larger scientific community. Perhaps that is the reason they are thriving while LANL continues to decline.

Anonymous said...

To become top-rate science organization, you need the right people, because A students attract A students, while B students attract C students. LANL and LLNL ride on public misperception that they are top-rate science organizations. They used to be long ago, but not anymore. They got B and C students at the top.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, we need someone like Chu...Noble prize winner and all that. Look at how well he ran DOE! You all don't have a clue what your talking about.

Anonymous said...

DOE is not a science lab. DOE is a US Government Agency. Putting a Nobel prize winner at a Government Agency doesn't mean it will be run better.

We're talking about putting scientists in leadership positions at science labs, not into government administration. Chu at LBNL improved the stature of LBNL. Chu at DOE simply made for a big mess.

Anonymous said...


Putting top scientists in charge of anything is a huge mistake. Look at Steve Chu.

Anonymous said...

To become top-rate science organization, you need the right people, because A students attract A students, while B students attract C students. LANL and LLNL ride on public misperception that they are top-rate science organizations. They used to be long ago, but not anymore. They got B and C students at the top.

April 5, 2013 at 4:07 PM

It's insulting to consider Bret Knapp a C student. He was a B- student at what he considers the best engineering school in the country, Cal Poly. He also has a BS degree, darn it! Only the best at LANS, only the best!

Anonymous said...


Putting top scientists in charge of anything is a huge mistake. Look at Steve Chu.

April 6, 2013 at 3:33 AM

Yes we need people like Jamie Dimon at the top. Those are the intellectual giants who can run this country.
And maybe give Rush Limbaugh the department of public information.


Generalizations like the one quoted are not very helpful.

Anonymous said...

Well, they're helpful in assessing the cluelessness of the poster.

Anonymous said...

If Chu had good administration skills, it could have been a vastly different outcome. The fact is... he was mediocre.

Anonymous said...

The well published scientist Bill Press was the head Science Directorate at LANL pre LANS and was nothing special.

Anonymous said...

Actually Bill Press had much more than science to deal with as Deputy Director at LANL, and he dealt with it well. His authorities and responsibilities were equal to the Director's. I worked with him and respected his decisions. His understanding of non-science issues was accurate and decisive.

Anonymous said...

Bill Press was far from perfect but those that have followed him as head of LANL Science have been udder disasters. In comparison to the dim leadership of Terry Wallace, Bill Press was a blinding glare of brilliance.

Anonymous said...

"udder disasters" ?

I never seen cow tits have that problem before. It must be very messy!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it's amazing how many people in science have absolutely no education in language, philosophy, literature, or social science. Truly "blinders-on" education. If you are a scientist with a BS rather than a BA, it's an indication that you went to a school with no concern for producing well-rounded educated people. Too bad.

Anonymous said...

thank you for the mis-"udder".

I am still smiling.

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