Jeremy Busby has been named associate laboratory director for the Isotope Science and Engineering Directorate at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, effective April 1.
“Jeremy is an accomplished leader with a considerable background in nuclear science and operations. These traits will help him successfully lead the laboratory’s isotope and enrichment efforts, which are critical national missions,” interim ORNL Director Jeff Smith said.
Busby joined ORNL in 2004 and has served in several leadership roles at the laboratory, most recently as director of the Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division and associate lab director for the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate. Busby’s strong attention to operational discipline and his deep understanding of nuclear science will ensure ISED’s work is done safely and moves forward.
In his new role, Busby will lead a directorate of talented scientists and engineers charged with producing unique isotopes for various uses, developing enrichment technology and operating ORNL’s nuclear facilities. The broad science portfolio for ISED includes making difficult-to-produce materials, such as actinium-225 for use in potential treatments for aggressive forms of cancer and plutonium-238 to power NASA’s deep space missions.
“The lab has a proud history of delivering high-impact isotopes, positioning ORNL as a world leader in isotope research, development and production. ISED provides excellent stewardship of ORNL’s nuclear and radiological facilities — the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center and numerous other hot cell facilities — that are critical in guiding the lab’s efforts to broaden the application of isotopes for energy, environmental, medical and national security purposes,” Busby said. “I’m honored to contribute to our success moving forward.”
Busby has served ORNL as a senior scientist, leader of two groups and director of the Materials Science and Technology Division and Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division (now the Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division). He is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society and has received numerous awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering for research leading to development of high-performance cast stainless steels for the ITER fusion reactor, and the Secretary of Energy Achievement Award for his contributions to DOE’s response to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011.
He is adjunct faculty in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan and in the Department of Materials Science at Virginia Tech. He received a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering from Kansas State University and holds a master’s degree and doctorate in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
