Doon Gibbs leads Brookhaven National Laboratory, a multi-program U.S. Department of Energy laboratory with about 2,700 employees, more than 2,500 facility users each year, and an annual budget of about $600 million. Home to seven Nobel Prizes, Brookhaven Lab features a research portfolio that ranges from fundamental science to innovation, development, and commercialization of technologies, with major programs in nuclear and high energy physics; energy science and technology; biological and environmental research; nonproliferation and national security; and data-driven computational science. Brookhaven Lab's main user facilities include the National Synchrotron Light Source II, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials.
Doon Gibbs earned a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the University of Utah in 1977, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 1979 and 1982 respectively. He joined Brookhaven in 1983 as an assistant physicist and progressed through the ranks to become a senior physicist in 2000. Gibbs's science career focused on studying magnetic materials and surfaces using x-ray scattering. His managerial experience at Brookhaven includes the posts of Group Leader of X-ray Scattering, Associate and Deputy Chair of Physics, Head of Condensed Matter Physics, Interim Director of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Associate Laboratory Director for Basic Energy Sciences, and Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology. He became Laboratory Director in 2013.
Gibbs was the 1991 E.P. Wohlfarth Lecturer in Physics at the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom and won the 1985 DOE Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment in Solid State Physics. He was honored with the 2003 Advanced Photon Source Arthur H. Compton Award "for pioneering theoretical and experimental work in resonant magnetic x-ray scattering, which has led to many important applications in condensed matter physics." Gibbs is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society.
At Brookhaven, Gibbs was instrumental in overseeing the design and construction of the Lab's Center for Functional Nanomaterials, and has played a significant role in advancing other major Lab projects including the National Synchrotron Light Source II, the Interdisciplinary Science Building, the Computational Science Initiative, and Discovery Park. He currently serves as a Board member of the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, the Long Island Association, and Stony Brook University’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, and has played an important role in raising the Laboratory's profile both nationally and within New York State. Gibbs also serves as President of Brookhaven Science Associates, the organization founded by Stony Brook University and Battelle to manage and operate the Lab on behalf of DOE’s Office of Science.