Berkeleyan

Two profs take senior posts at LBNL

10 March 2005

Graham Fleming

Two Berkeley faculty members have joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's new senior management team, as part of the University of California's proposal to continue its management of LBNL under a new Department of Energy contract.

Steven Chu, LBNL director since Aug. 1, has named Berkeley chemistry professor Graham Fleming as the lab's deputy director. Fleming, an internationally recognized spectroscopist who has been serving as director of LBNL's Physical Biosciences Division, will succeed Pier Oddone, who announced in December that he will be leaving to become director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois, effective July 1.

A distinguished researcher, teacher, and administrator both at LBNL and on the Berkeley campus since 1997, Fleming is a world leader in the field of time-resolved spectroscopy. The British-born scientist received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of London in 1974 and completed various research fellowships prior to joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1979.

Clayton Heathcock

"Graham will be working closely with me on scientific policy and program development, as well as on more fully integrating operations and administration activities with the scientific programs," said Chu. "He will play a critical role in the laboratory's new organization, and I am delighted that someone of his extraordinary talents and ability has agreed to accept [this appointment]."

Fleming will continue in his role as Berkeley director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3), but he will be joined by Berkeley chemistry dean Clayton Heathcock, who will help lead Berkeley-QB3 activities as chief scientist as of July 1. In his new QB3 role, Heathcock will help develop new scientific programs across the three QB3 campuses (Berkeley, UCSF, and UC Santa Cruz) and with LBNL. He will continue as dean of the College of Chemistry through June 30.

Paul Alivisatos

Chu also named chemistry and materials science professor Paul Alivisatos as associate laboratory director for physical sciences. Recognized internationally as one of the "fathers" of nanoscience, Alivisatos has served as LBNL Materials Sciences Division director since 2003 and heads the lab's Molecular Foundry program.

He received his Ph.D. in 1986 from Berkeley, joined the faculty in 1988, and became professor of chemistry in 1995, chancellor's professor from 1998 to 2001, and professor of materials science and engineering in 1999. He is a world leader in the synthesis, characterization, and understanding of semiconductor and metal nanocrystals, and he was among the first to publish results in this field more than a decade ago. Alivisatos is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.