Berkeley Lab Interim Director A. Paul Alivisatos
Paul Alivisatos was appointed interim director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by UC President Mark G. Yudof on January 21, 2009. Alivisatos replaced former laboratory Director Steve Chu, who was sworn in as U.S. Energy Secretary. Prior to becoming interim director, Alivisatos was the deputy director of Berkeley Lab, serving as the lab’s chief research officer, overseeing the discretionary research budget, key research initiatives and technology transfer functions. In addition, he assisted the director in developing the overall strategic direction and institutional planning for the laboratory. Alivisatos is a leader of Berkeley Lab’s Helios solar research initiative, where he is spearheading ground-breaking research on artificial photosynthesis and photovoltaic technology through the creation of nano-inspired devices.
From 2005-2007, prior to being named deputy director of Berkeley Lab, Alivisatos was associate laboratory director for physical sciences. From 2002-2008 he was director of the materials sciences division and from 2001-2005 he was director of the Molecular Foundry at Berkeley Lab. Alivisatos has been a member of the faculty at UC Berkeley since 1988. He is currently the Larry and Diane Bock Professor of Nanotechnology and a professor in the departments of materials science and chemistry.
Alivisatos is a scientific founder of Quantum Dot Corp. and Nanosys Inc., and a board member of Solexant Inc. He is the founding editor of Nano Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society.
Alivisatos has published widely and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, the Eni Italgas Prize for Energy and Environment, the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics Award, the Wilson Prize, the Coblentz Award for Advances in Molecular Spectroscopy, and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Awards for Sustained Outstanding Research in Materials Chemistry and Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment in Materials Chemistry. He has held fellowships with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Alivisatos attended the University of Chicago and received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry with Honors in 1981. He continued his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1986, he went to AT&T Bell Labs where he worked as a postdoctoral, and it was at this time that he first became involved in research related to Nanotechnology. In 1988, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley and became a principal investigator at Berkeley Lab. His award winning research has catapulted him to the rank of world authority on colloidal nanocrystal science.
For more about Paul Alivisatos and his research, visit his Website at http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/pagrp/paulbio.html
