JoAnne Hewett Picked to Direct Brookhaven National Lab

Brookhaven National Lab announced last week that its governing board has selected SLAC theoretical physicist JoAnne Hewett to be the lab’s next director. She will be the first woman to hold the role, which she is expected to take up this summer.

Hewett received her doctorate in physics from Iowa State University in 1988 and joined SLAC in 1994, where she has had a series of leadership roles and currently serves as the lab’s chief research officer and its top official for fundamental physics.

She also chairs the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel, a federal advisory committee that serves the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation.

At Brookhaven, Hewett will succeed Doon Gibbs, who is departing the lab this week. Gibbs has been director since 2012 and, prior to stepping aside, was the longest-serving of the current leaders of the 17 DOE national labs.

Among the tasks he is leaving Hewett is overseeing construction of the Electron-Ion Collider, a flagship facility for research in fundamental physics that will replace Brookhaven’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which is set to conclude operations in 2025.

Brookhaven Deputy Director of Operations Jack Anderson will serve as interim director until Hewett’s arrival.