The University of California Board of Regents today (May 5) approved Katherine Yelick as the next director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Her appointment as director begins on July 1.
Yelick is a leading computer scientist with a highly distinguished research and leadership career at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab. She is currently the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley, and a senior faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab. She served as Associate Laboratory Director for Berkeley Lab’s Computing Sciences Area from 2010 through 2019, and was the director of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Berkeley Lab from 2008 to 2012.
The Board of Regents approved Yelick’s appointment following a national search and acting on the recommendation of UC President James Milliken. The University of California operates Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy.
“Dr. Yelick is an exceptional leader with outstanding scientific credentials,” said President Milliken. “Her deep expertise in computing and AI, combined with her proven ability to lead complex scientific organizations, will enable Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to pursue new discoveries in an era of rapid technological change.”
Yelick will be the ninth director of Berkeley Lab since it was founded in 1931. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Its groundbreaking research is focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The Lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes.
“I am honored to serve as director of Berkeley Lab, an institution that has long stood at the forefront of scientific discovery and innovation,” Yelick said. “At a time when advances in AI and data science are transforming how science is done, Berkeley Lab is uniquely positioned to lead. I look forward to working with the lab’s extraordinary community to advance its mission and deliver solutions to the nation’s most pressing challenges.”
“There is no better place to make an important impact on the nation’s science and technology challenges than Berkeley Lab. And there is no better person to lead Berkeley Lab than Kathy Yelick,” said current Berkeley Lab Director Mike Witherell.
“Dr. Yelick brings deep expertise in high performance computing and machine learning, along with a strong track record in research management,” said DOE Under Secretary for Science Darío Gil. “I look forward to working with her at this pivotal moment for the nation’s scientific leadership, not only in artificial intelligence and quantum information science, but across the full spectrum of big science at the DOE National Labs that drives American innovation in discovery, energy security, and more.”
Yelick has played a lead role in several DOE Office of Science and Berkeley Lab initiatives. On the national stage, she worked with senior managers across the DOE national lab complex to launch the Exascale Computing Initiative, which ran from 2016 to 2024 and developed the critical applications and software needed to make effective use of exascale-capable hardware. She has also been instrumental in helping DOE develop strategies for artificial intelligence and big data research.
At Berkeley Lab, she oversaw the financing and construction of Shyh Wang Hall, which opened in 2015 as home to DOE’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and NERSC, and many researchers in Computing Sciences. She also led the launch of the Lab’s Machine Learning for Science initiative, which developed and applied AI/ML methodologies to address important scientific challenges. This initiative was important foundational work that informed the development of DOE’s Genesis Mission, a national effort to harness AI for energy, science, and security.
Her research focuses on high performance computing, programming languages, compilers, and parallel algorithms. She has worked on interdisciplinary teams developing scientific applications ranging from simulations of chemistry, fusion, and blood flow in the heart to analysis problems in phylogenetics and genome assembly. She led the ExaBiome project, a multi-institutional effort that applies exascale computing to microbiome analysis, significantly advancing the biological science programs of the Office of Science.
She is a member of National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of both the Association for Computing Machinery and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and has been a professor at UC Berkeley since 1991 with a dual appointment as a faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab since 1996.
Yelick will replace departing director Mike Witherell, who led the Lab for a decade through a historic period of scientific achievement and operational excellence, with a deep commitment to developing the next generation of scientists.
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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.