The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has named Katherine (Kate) Evans as associate laboratory director for the Biological and Environmental Systems Science Directorate (BESSD). Evans will lead the directorate because it advances the science and expertise wanted to strengthen power safety, safeguard infrastructure and speed up biotechnology innovation.
“Kate brings scientific depth, operational management and a powerful sense of mission that can strengthen our work in organic and environmental systems science,” mentioned ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer. “She has led lab-wide strategy, advanced major initiatives and built teams connecting computation to real-world challenges — positioning her to expand our impact in biotechnology and energy resilience. I look forward to working with her in this new role.”
For the past two years, Kate has served as the director of the Office of Institutional Strategic Planning (OISP), where she coordinated labwide science and technology strategic activities and the development of the Annual Lab Plan, Annual Report and Laboratory Agenda. During her time leading OISP, she was central to the creation of ORNL’s Quantum Roadmap and oversight of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. She recently spearheaded the “Accelerating Southeast Resilience at ORNL” initiative and can proceed to assist form that effort in her new function.
“I am excited and honored to step into the BESSD ALD role,” Evans mentioned. “There are pressing challenges in essential minerals, scaled biomanufacturing and ample, resilient power systems, and BESSD is supplied to satisfy them. Our world-class crew will draw on exascale computing, AI, superior analytics and autonomous analysis capabilities to translate scientific discoveries into progressive options for DOE and the nation.”
Prior to OISP, Kate served as director of ORNL’s Computational Sciences and Engineering Division for nearly six years, leading scalable computing efforts to address scientific challenges across the physical, engineering, health, and quantum information sciences. Kate joined ORNL in 2007 as a research and development staff member before becoming the group leader of Computational Earth Sciences in 2013. She has been an active member in the laboratory’s community engagement efforts, serving as vice chair and then chairing the ORNL Gives campaign in 2022 and 2023.
In addition to her roles at ORNL, Kate is a faculty member in the Bredesen Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is a member of the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematicians. In 2024, she was awarded the SIAM Activity Group on Mathematics of Planet Earth Prize for her contributions to multidisciplinary algorithms and scientific computing, leadership in multidisciplinary team building and science communication between disciplines. Kate earned her doctorate and master’s degree in earth and atmospheric sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in physics from Haverford College.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit power.gov/science.