Zacharia named director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

United States Secretary of Energy Rick Perry recently announced that Thomas Zacharia was appointed as the new Director
of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The UT-Battelle Board of Governors unanimously selected Zacharia to succeed Thom Mason as director and will transition
to Laboratory Director, effective July 1.

“Dr. Thomas Zacharia will be an exceptional Director for Oak Ridge National Laboratory,” Perry said. “Dr. Zacharia has proven success with academic partnerships, broad-based scientific experience, and an exceptional skill set for building relationships. During my recent tour of ORNL, he also gave me insight into his vision for the future of ORNL, one of the world’s finest scientific laboratories.”

Zacharia’s began working at ORNL in 1987 as a postdoctoral researcher and has since served in a variety of roles at the national lab. Most recently, he was ORNL’s deputy director for science and technology. In this role, he provided strategic direction for the ORNL budget and research, collaboration with the various scientific fields and global security.

He holds two U.S. patents and is author or co-author over 100 publications on high-performance computing for manufacturing processes.

“Tennesseans know that Oak Ridge provides thousands jobs for our state and higher family incomes,” U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said. “Dr. Thomas Zacharia is the right person to lead the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he has already helped steer the lab to excellence in supercomputing, science and energy research, and advanced manufacturing.”