Doon Gibbs Named Head of Brookhaven Lab's Basic Energy Sciences
November 22, 2004
UPTON, NY - Doon Gibbs has been named Associate Laboratory Director for Basic Energy Sciences at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, effective November 1.
With a staff of 180 and a current annual budget of about $52 million, the Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Directorate is responsible for overseeing research in chemistry, materials science, and condensed matter physics, and for shepherding Brookhaven's new Center for Functional Nanomaterials from blueprints to a functioning center by 2007. The center will be one of five being built by DOE's Office of Science at national laboratories around the U.S. for the study of materials at ultra-small dimensions - on a scale of a nanometer, or a billionth of a meter.
"I am delighted to have this opportunity to lead Brookhaven's Basic Energy Sciences Directorate," Gibbs said. "Broadly, DOE's goals are to carry out basic research and develop new tools to help secure energy independence for the U.S. With our strong scientific programs and facilities and a great BES management team, I'm excited about our ability to contribute to these challenges in the coming years."
Together, Gibbs and his senior management team have defined three major research directions for the Laboratory: in model catalysts, involving substances that make chemical reactions work more quickly; in strongly correlated and complex systems, for example, trying to understand high-temperature superconductivity; and in developing new programs at the interface between life and physical sciences, for instance, using biological ideas to design novel nanomaterials with new properties.
Gibbs envisions Brookhaven scientists working together with university and industrial researchers to make new discoveries in basic energy sciences research. He said, "Facilities at Brookhaven — such as the National Synchrotron Light Source, which uses x-rays, infrared and ultraviolet light to study materials as diverse as viruses and batteries, and the soon to be built Center for Functional Nanomaterials — will be crucial for helping to solve our energy challenges."
Doon Gibbs earned a B.A. in physics and mathematics from the University of Utah in 1977, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 1979 and 1982, respectively. He joined Brookhaven in 1983 as an assistant physicist and progressed through the ranks to become senior physicist in 2000. Gibbs's managerial experience at Brookhaven includes the posts of Group Leader of X-Ray Scattering, Associate and Deputy Chair of Physics, Head of Condensed Matter Physics, Interim Director for the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, and, since November 2002, Interim Associate Laboratory Director for Basic Energy Sciences.
Gibbs was honored with the 2003 Advanced Photon Source Arthur H. Compton Award "for pioneering theoretical and experimental work in resonant magnetic x-ray scattering, which has led to many important applications in condensed matter physics." He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society.
2004-10246 | INT/EXT | Newsroom
