Auditorium of the American Museum of Science and Energy, 115 E. Main St., Oak Ridge.

In his first “State of the Lab” address, Stephen K. Streiffer will speak about the laboratory’s missions, recent achievements and prospects. This is a free community event, open to the public, hosted by Friends of ORNL as part of FORNL’s occasional series of Community Lectures. Hors d’oeuvres and non-alcoholic beverages will be served starting at 5:30 p.m. 

Biographical Sketch

Streiffer, who joined ORNL on Oct. 16, 2023, is the 12^th director in ORNL’s history. He

leads more than 7,000 staff in delivering on critical national missions by leveraging the laboratory’s world-leading facilities, tools and signature strengths in neutron science, high-performance computing, advanced materials, biology and environmental science, energy technologies, nuclear science and engineering, isotopes and national security research.

Streiffer came to ORNL from Stanford University, where he served as interim director of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He joined Stanford in June 2022 as the university’s vice president responsible for oversight of the lab. He previously spent 24 years in research and leadership positions at Argonne National Laboratory, concluding his tenure as the lab’s deputy director for science and technology.

While at Argonne, he led the Photon Sciences Directorate and served as director of the Advanced Photon Source. The APS is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility that generates ultra-bright, high-energy X-ray beams for researchers from government, academia and the private sector. He helped lead the APS Upgrade, an $815-million project to improve photon performance by two to three orders of magnitude.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 through May 2022, Streiffer served as co-director of DOE’s National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory (NVBL), a consortium that leveraged the expertise and research facilities of the national labs to address challenges related to testing, treatment, epidemiological modeling and supply chain bottlenecks encountered during the height of the pandemic.

Streiffer’s scientific expertise is in nanostructured complex oxides and the structural characterization of materials using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray scattering techniques. He has authored or co-authored more than 180 scientific publications and holds one patent.

He earned his doctoral degree in materials science and engineering from Stanford University and his bachelor’s degree in materials science from Rice University. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the Materials Research Society and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.