Jeffrey B. Neaton has been appointed Associate Laboratory Director for the Energy Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The announcement follows an international search led by committee chair Horst Simon, Deputy Director for Research.
Neaton is the Director of the Molecular Foundry, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nanoscale Science Research Center at Berkeley Lab. He joined the Molecular Foundry as a postdoctoral scholar in 2003, prior to the construction of the building. Throughout his career at the Molecular Foundry, Neaton has been an integral member of the team that built the facility into a world-leading nanoscience center. In 2008, Neaton became the Theory Facility Director, and was appointed Deputy Director of the Materials Sciences Division (MSD) in early 2011. From August 2012 to June 2013, he served as the Acting Division Director for the Materials Sciences Division before being appointed Director of the Foundry in 2013, which has flourished under his leadership. In 2015, it assumed operational control of the National Center for Electron Microscopy, and in 2016, the Molecular Foundry was elevated to the status of a Berkeley Lab Scientific Division. Neaton will serve as Acting Director of the Foundry until a search for his replacement is completed.
