Baktash has worked at ORNL since 1982 and has published more than 200 papers, spoken at more than 50 major scientific meetings and conferences, made presentations to more than 30 universities and national laboratories and contributed more than 200 articles to The Bulletin of the American Physical Society.
At ORNL, Baktash has served on committees to determine the long-range plan of the Physics Division, propose expansion of the Holifield Ion Beam Facility and helped organize numerous workshops. In addition to the American Physical Society, Baktash is a member of the American Chemical Society, Nuclear and Plasma Science Society, Sigma Chi and the New York Academy of Science. Prior to coming to ORNL, Baktash was an associate physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y.
A native of Tehran, Iran, Baktash is a U.S. citizen. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, a master's degree and doctorate in physics from the University of Pittsburgh.
Baktash and his wife, Suzanne, live in Farragut with their two children, Yasmine, 11, and Darius, 8.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp.