As Director of ORNL’s Office of Institutional Strategic Planning, Dr. Brian Anderson provides leadership for institutional S&T strategies, resourcing, and discretionary investments. He also manages the Lab Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program and Research Library.
From 2020 to 2026, Dr. Anderson served as the Director of the Enrichment Science & Engineering Division in ORNL’s Isotope Science and Enrichment Directorate. In this capacity, he served as inaugural director, developing sustainable R&D programs that supported enrichment technology development and deployment for the nation; leading the development of new technologies and capital projects, and establishing the leadership structure for organizational growth.
From 2019 to 2020, Dr. Anderson served on special assignment assessing ORNL’s enrichment science programs. In this role, he led a multi-directorate team in developing a long-term enrichment technology R&D strategy for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s Defense Fuels Program, which will enable deployment of domestic uranium enrichment capacity at scale for defense needs.
From 2013 to 2019, he led the Nuclear Security Advanced Technologies Group, and served as  Deputy Division Director for Science and Technology supporting the Nuclear Security and Isotope Technology division in 2018.  Dr. Anderson joined ORNL in 2010 where he worked to advance ORNL’s nuclear forensic science capabilities. He founded ORNL’s Ultra-trace Forensic Science Center in 2011 and managed the center until 2019. As both principal investigator and co-principal investigator, he has directed numerous scientific programs for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
Before joining ORNL, Dr. Anderson served as a Senior Fellow Scientist in the Nonproliferation Technologies Section at Savannah River National Laboratory and as a Principal Research Scientist at Cargill, Incorporated.
He holds a master’s and doctoral degree in analytical chemistry from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Central Washington University. He also holds a joint appointment as an associate professor at the University of Tennessee’s Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education.
