Chaudhari to Head Brookhaven

Praveen Chaudhari, a longtime scientist and manager at IBM, has been named as the new director of Brookhaven National Laboratory. He takes over the position vacated in 2001 when John Marburger was appointed by President Bush to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Physicist Peter Paul, who has served as the interim director, will continue at the lab in his longtime position as deputy director for science and technology when Chaudhari begins work 1 April.

“I guess the first few months will be a very, very steep learning curve,” Chaudhari said. “I’m preparing for that, but I’m not unfamiliar with Brookhaven. I’ve known it over many years and even have done an experiment there.”

Chaudhari, a condensed matter physicist, spent 36 years at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in York-town Heights, New York. In addition to working as a staff scientist at IBM, he has served as the vice president of science and as director of physical science. He has published more than 160 research articles and has 22 patents.

“What I hope to do when I get there,” he said, “is learn about all of the science they’re doing, all of the issues they’ve faced, they are facing, and may face in the future. That includes not just science, but science funding and all of the things we worry about when trying to manage science.” While the lab is well-known for its 3.8-kilometer-circumference Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), Chaudhari noted that it is much more than that. “There is the light source, and now there is going to be a nanoscience center. Then there is medical imaging, and activities in the environment, and in security.”

Chaudhari said the transition from active researcher back into management will be the most difficult part of the new job. “I left management about 10 years ago because I didn’t want to manage anymore,” he said. “I wanted to do hands-on science. I’ve done that for the last 10 years. But now the time has come when I felt I’m ready for a change.”

The decision to take the Brookhaven job was arrived at “by three defining factors,” he said. “One was myself, and I was ready. The second was, What shape was Brookhaven in?” Chaudhari spoke first with Marburger, then former director Nick Samios, who stepped down in 1997, and interim director Paul. They, plus other lab officials, assured him the lab was in good shape, so he turned his attention to the Department of Energy, which is the “landlord” for all of the national labs. Discussions more than a year ago with DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham and other department officials left him convinced the department supported science research. “And then when Ray Orbach got the job [as director of DOE’s Office of Science], I said, ‘Oh, I knew Ray when we were both struggling scientists and I know he’s for science, and his managers are for science, so DOE seems in the right mood from a management perspective.’ ”