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University of Tennessee - Battelle,
Partnership for the Future of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Dr. Thom Mason, Laboratory Director

Dr. Thom Mason became ORNL Director on July 1, 2007, following a successful tenure since 2001 as Associate Lab Director for the Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source and, more recently, ORNL's Neutron Sciences Directorate. As head of the SNS project, Mason led a consortium of six DOE labs in the design and construction of the $1.4 billion neutron accelerator. Completed on time, on budget and on scope, the SNS will restore American leadership in the field of neutron scattering and materials research. In addition to his role with the Spallation Neutron Source, Dr. Mason was an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, an Associate of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, a Senior Scientist at Riso National Laboratory in Denmark, and a Postdoctoral Fellow with Bell Laboratories. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Now an American citizen, Dr. Mason is a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He received degrees from Dalhousie University and McMaster University in Canada. Dr. Mason lives with his wife, Jennifer, and two sons in Oak Ridge. He serves as Chair of the Oak Ridge Public Schools Foundation, which helped raise $55 million to renovate Oak Ridge High School. He succeeded Dr. Jeff Wadsworth, now Executive Vice President for Laboratory Operations at Battelle headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.