Paul K. Kearns | |
---|---|
![]() Kearns in 2017 | |
14th Director of the Argonne National Laboratory | |
Assumed office 2017 | |
President | Donald Trump Joe Biden |
Preceded by | Peter Littlewood |
Alma mater | Purdue University |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions | |
Thesis | The quantitative movement of manganese-54 in a model food chain (1980) |
Doctoral advisor | Richard J. Vetter |
Paul K. Kearns is an American physicist. He received his bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in Natural Resources & Environmental Science in 1976 and a masters and Ph.D. in bionucleonics from Purdue University in 1977 and 1980, respectively.
Kearns is laboratory director of Argonne National Laboratory[1] and president of UChicago Argonne, LLC, the organization managing Argonne on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
Kearns’ responsibilities include oversight of the upgrade of the Advanced Photon Source and construction of one of the U.S.’s first exascale computing systems. He also oversees a broad portfolio of basic and applied research consisting of discovery science, energy and climate research and development, global security, and the design and operation of large-scale research facilities.
Kearns is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[2]
Kearns has delivered testimony in front of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology[3] and co-chaired the 2020 American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting.[4]