Lab's Carol Burns selected CST deputy division director

Contact: Ternel Martinez, (505) 665-7778 (99-168)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Nov. 10, 1999 -- Carol Burns has been named deputy director of the Chemical Science and Technology Division at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory. Her new position becomes effective Nov. 15.

The recently reorganized CST division supports the three Los Alamos directorates for Nuclear Weapons, Threat Reduction and Strategic and Supporting Research through a variety of chemistry programs. The division has about 350 employees.

"I am very pleased that Carol Burns has accepted our offer to serve as the CST deputy division director," said Laboratory Director John Browne. "I had the pleasure of working with Carol when she managed our basic energy sciences work in the chemical sciences area, and I was very impressed with her technical skills and her leadership abilities. I am sure that she and CST Division Director Al Sattelberger will provide CST with outstanding leadership."

Added Sattelberger, "I am very happy that Carol will be joining me in the CST Division Office. She brings technical expertise, prior management experience and enthusiasm to the position. These will be tapped as we chart the future of the division with our group leaders."

Burns, currently deputy group leader for Los Alamos' Chemical and Environmental Research and Development Group (CST-18), said she looks forward to helping shape the division's future.

"Everybody sees change in different ways. I see CST's reorganization as an opportunity for the division to showcase its researchers' ingenuity and adaptability," Burns said.

"Because CST supports all three Laboratory directorates, its employees bear a tremendous responsibility of meeting those directorates' ever-evolving needs. I will do whatever is necessary to help my colleagues continue meeting those needs."

Burns also is the Laboratory's liaison with the Chemical Sciences Division in DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences, as well as focus area leader for molecular sciences for the Los Alamos branch of the Glenn Seaborg Institute for Transactinium Science.

Her other positions have included team leader for inorganic chemistry in Los Alamos' Structural and Inorganic Chemistry Group and program manager for advanced concepts in the former Energy Technology Programs Office.

Burns received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Rice University and her doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. She came to Los Alamos as a J. Robert Oppenheimer Postdoctoral Fellow in 1987 and became a regular staff member in 1989.

Among her other notable achievements and awards are a 1998 fellowship from the International Women's Forum Leadership Foundation and a 1996 National Performance Review Hammer Award for helping to implement the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge.

Burns is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. She has authored more than 60 scientific papers.