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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Putting top scientists in charge of anything is a huge mistake. Look at Steve Chu.
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!
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.
Well, they're helpful in assessing the cluelessness of the poster.
If Chu had good administration skills, it could have been a vastly different outcome. The fact is... he was mediocre.
The well published scientist Bill Press was the head Science Directorate at LANL pre LANS and was nothing special.
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.
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.
"udder disasters" ?
I never seen cow tits have that problem before. It must be very messy!
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.
thank you for the mis-"udder".
I am still smiling.
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