Battelle picks new director of Oak Ridge National Lab

Stephen Streiffer, who is currently the interim director of a national laboratory in California, will become the new director of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in October, Battelle announced last week.

Streiffer is currently the interim head of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, formerly known as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, in Menlo Park, Calif., Battelle said in a press release. UT-Battelle, a joint venture of Battelle and the University of Tennessee, runs Oak Ridge National Laboratory for DOE’s Office of Science.

Oak Ridge is developing a new centrifuge technology that could become the foundation of the next all-domestic uranium enrichment cascade. The Oak Ridge technology is competing with an offering developed by Centrus Energy Corp., Bethesda, Md.

Streiffer joined SLAC last year as Stanford University’s vice president responsible for oversight of the lab and was named the project’s interim director in February of this year, according to the press release. He has more than 24 years of experience as a research manager at Chicago-based Argonne National Laboratory, including a stint as deputy director for science and technology.

From March 2020 through May 2022, Streiffer was also co-director of DOE’s National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium that included Oak Ridge, devoted to national labs efforts to address testing, treatment and other issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the press release.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on Energy and Water, issued a statement congratulating Streiffer on the appointment.

Jeff Smith, who served 21 years and Oak Ridge National Lab’s deputy for operations before retiring in April 2021, is currently the facility’s interim director.