Doon Gibbs four-decade career at Brookhaven National Laboratory

DoonGibbs

Doon Gibbs dedicated his four-decade career at Brookhaven National Laboratory to advancing science and technology on the nation's behalf.

On April 17, Gibbs stepped down from his role as laboratory director, a position he held for 10 years. He looks forward to staying connected to the science and technology ecosystem on Long Island and in New York.

While leading the U.S. Department of Energy facility, he oversaw a staff of more than 2,600 and an annual budget of approximately $700 million. The lab’s portfolio is wide-ranging – bounding from fundamental nuclear physics to advanced clean-energy commercialization, with everything from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to climate science and national security in play.

Gibbs was also president of Brookhaven Science Associates, the Stony Brook University-Battelle Memorial Institute partnership that manages Brookhaven Lab for the DOE. The former director and chair of the National Lab Directors’ Council is also an active member of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, Long Island Association Board of Directors, and the SUNY Research Council.

He joined Brookhaven Lab in 1983 as an assistant physicist and rose through the ranks, later becoming a senior physicist, leader of the X-Ray Scattering Group, associate laboratory director for basic energy sciences and deputy laboratory director for science and technology.

Gibbs earned his master’s degree and PhD in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Physical Society. He also received multiple awards, including the 2003 Advanced Photon Source Arthur H. Compton Award and the 1985 DOE Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment in Solid State Physics.