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news release:
Samuel Aronson Named Interim Laboratory
Director
Upton, NY, Apr. 18: The Board of Directors of
Brookhaven
Science Associates (BSA), which manages Brookhaven National Laboratory for
the U.S. Department of Energy, announced today that Samuel Aronson, the Lab's
Associate Laboratory Director (ALD) for High Energy and Nuclear Physics, would
become the Laboratory's Interim Director when current Director Praveen Chaudhari
steps down on April 30, 2006. Chaudhari announced on February 17, 2006, that he
would step down at the end of this month.
Aronson, a physicist, has been managing Brookhaven National Laboratory's largest
directorate since his appointment to the ALD position last April, overseeing the
operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Laboratory's
Physics Department. Prior to that, he had been chair of the Physics Department.
"I am very pleased that Sam Aronson has agreed to undertake the responsibility
of guiding Brookhaven National Laboratory through this interim period," said
Shirley Strum Kenny, Chair of the BSA Board and President of Stony Brook
University. "He is an outstanding scientist who is widely praised for his
leadership on some of the Laboratory's most important high energy and nuclear
physics projects, for his chairmanship of the Physics department, and most
recently as ALD for shaping the scientific direction of the key High Energy and
Nuclear Physics sector of the Laboratory. He understands the challenges we face
to keep our science on the cutting edge and, as Interim Director, will work to
see that progress on the important facilities in the Basic Energy Sciences
directorate and in other areas of our science programs will be vigorous. He also
understands that a condition for doing science is that all operations are done
safely and in an environmentally benign way."
Kenny and BSA Board Vice Chair Carl Kohrt, CEO of Battelle Memorial Institute,
have appointed Robert McGrath of Stony Brook and Donald McConnell of Battelle as
co-chairs of a search committee charged with naming a permanent director. The
committee expects to complete its duties by late summer 2006. BSA is a
limited-liability company founded by the Research Foundation of State University
of New York on behalf of Stony Brook, the largest academic user of Laboratory
facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology
organization.
"Brookhaven National Laboratory's science agenda is very strong and on a good
course," said Aronson. "My top scientific priority will be to advance this
agenda, which includes the continued development of new scientific capabilities
and user facilities to maintain Brookhaven's position as a world leader in
science. At the same time, I will strive for continued excellence and
improvement in environmental management, safety, security, and occupational
health."
Aronson earned an A.B. in physics from Columbia University in 1964, and a Ph.D.
in physics from Princeton University in 1968. From 1968 to 1972, he worked at
the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies as a
research associate. He then moved to the University of Wisconsin, where he was a
faculty member until 1977.
Aronson joined Brookhaven Lab's Accelerator Department in 1978 as an associate
physicist, and was named physicist in 1979. He moved to the Physics Department
in 1982, was appointed associate chair of the department in 1987, and promoted
to deputy chair in 1988. In 1991, Aronson relinquished this position and, as a
senior physicist, served as the head of the PHENIX detector project during the
construction of RHIC, a challenge he successfully completed before he became
chair of Physics in 2001. Aronson is a Fellow of the American Physical Society
and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
One of ten national laboratories overseen and funded primarily by the Office of
Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory
conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as
well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds
and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and
government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of
Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by
the Research Foundation of State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook
University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a
nonprofit, applied science and technology organization. Visit Brookhaven Lab's
electronic newsroom for links, news archives, graphics, and more:
http://www.bnl.gov/newsroom
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