New Argonne chief excited about the future

An expert on the tiniest pieces of matter will turn his focus on the big picture at Argonne National Laboratory.

Eric D. Isaacs, a University of Chicago physicist and high-ranking Argonne administrator, will be the lab's new director effective May 1, officials announced Wednesday.

Isaacs, 51, serves as Argonne's deputy laboratory director of programs and was director of its Center for Nanoscale Materials.

U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer said Isaacs' skills as a scientist and his leadership qualities made him stand out in a national search. The university operates Argonne for the DOE.

Current Argonne Director Robert Rosner is stepping down from his position but will continue research work.

Argonne, located near Darien, recently lost a hotly contended contest to be the host facility for a rare-isotope accelerator, which was awarded to Michigan State University. And like other national laboratories, it was hit with funding cuts from the government.

Isaacs said in a statement the laboratory was headed on a new path and was positioning itself "to be a leader in solving the grand scientific challenges of our time. I am particularly excited to lead Argonne in developing transformational energy research and technologies."

During an interview with the Daily Herald in May 2005, Isaacs, who lives in Highland Park, discussed the possibilities the evolving field of nanotechnology holds.

"Nanotechnology is the ability to manipulate and characterize materials at these very small scales," he said. "The beauty of nanotechnology is that it brings together fields that don't normally work together."