Wadsworth, Jeffrey
Oral history interview with Jeffrey Wadsworth, 2020 June 3.
In this interview Jeffrey Wadsworth, retired and former President and CEO of Battelle Memorial Institute, discusses his life and career. He recounts: early childhood around the globe due to his fathers service in the British military, later childhood in Manchester, England, and final school-age years in Bahrain; undergraduate at University of Sheffield where he focused on metallurgy; decision to stay at Sheffield for graduate work measuring lattice parameters and testing steel strength at high temperatures; opportunities that led to his postdoctoral research at Stanford and metallurgy research at Lockheed; Livermore recruiting him to work on technology transfer issues during the Clinton administration; work as Associate Director at Livermore for chemistry and materials science and the internal politics leading to Michael Anastasio being named Lab Director; Batelles attempts to recruit him to run the Pacific Northwest Lab, and their offer for him to run Batelle Labs as a contractor to the newly-created Department of Homeland Security (DHS); complex administrative framework that developed between DHS and the Department of Energy (DOE), and the dynamics that led to his directorship of Oak Ridge; his initiative to make Oak Ridge a center of supercomputing research; return to Battelle to run the entire organization; origins of the Spallation Neutron Source; complexities of having oversight of eight major laboratory sites; decision leading to him being named President and CEO of Battelle; move away from science to become more involved in philanthropy, and his achievements in this role during the financial crisis; importance of the transportability of his leadership skills over the course of his career.
American metallurgist and philanthropost. Ph.D. metallurgy, University of Sheffield. Professional experience includes: postdoctoral research associate, research associate, lecturer, Stanford University (1976-1980); manager of metallurgy department, Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc. (1980-1992); deputy director for science & technology, University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (1992-2002); laboratory director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2003-2007); CEO and president, executive vice president of global laboratory operations, past president & CEO, UT-Battelle, LLC (2003-2018).
Anastasio, Michael R.
Wadsworth, Jeffrey
Battelle Memorial Institute
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lockheed Missiles and Space Company
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
United States. Department of Energy
United States. Department of Homeland Security
University of Sheffield.
Metallurgists.
Metallurgy
Neutron sources
Spallation (Nuclear physics) -- Research.
Technology transfer.
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979-, interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA