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ORNL Review

• Solving the Big Problems
• Both Directions at Once
• Becoming Part of the Process
• Anxiety Attack
• Food or Fuel?

Dr. Roberto was appointed director of Strategic Capabilities in March of 2009 to lead and oversee one of ORNL’s most significant challenges for the immediate future: the development and implementation of scientific and technical recruiting strategies needed to meet the anticipated growth in ORNL’s research activities.

Dr. Roberto additionally serves as UT-Battelle senior vice president for Contract Retention, leading the laboratory in the competition anticipated for the Department of Energy's Management and Operations Contract for ORNL.

He also is the principal point of contact for our numerous interactions with the University of Tennessee. Though the lab and the university have partnered for more than 60 years, that relationship – which includes joint institutes in bioenergy, neutron sciences, advanced materials and computational sciences – has taken major strides since the UT-Battelle contract management in 2000. Dr. Roberto will be responsible for the continued strategic development of the UT-ORNL partnership.

Prior to these current appointments, Dr. Roberto served as ORNL’s deputy director for Science and Technology, overseeing a remarkable growth period for the research and development programs. He also has served as associate laboratory director for physical sciences, leading initiatives such as a major scientific upgrade to the High Flux Isotope Reactor and the establishment of the $65 million Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, the Department of Energy’s first nanoscale science research center. He also served as director of the ORNL Solid State Division from 1990 to 1999.

Dr. Roberto joined ORNL in 1974 after earning a B.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His research interests have included X-ray and neutron scattering, ion-surface interactions, materials for fusion reactors, and nanoscale science and technology. Dr. Roberto is a former President of the Materials Research Society and Chair of the Division of Materials Physics of the American Physical Society. He has served on three National Research Council committees, most recently as Vice-Chair of the NRC study on Condensed-Matter and Materials Physics. He has testified before Congress on nanotechnology and chaired numerous national and international conferences, including the Department of Energy’s NanoSummit in 2004. Dr. Roberto is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of the 2004 National Materials Advancement Award from the Federation of Materials Research Societies.