The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the selection of John Connolly, Deputy Associate Lab Director for Operations of the Photon Sciences Directorate, and Director of the APS Engineering Support Division (AES), for the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program (OSELP).

Connolly will join the fourth cohort of OSELP, a DOE program to develop the next generation of science and energy leaders. As an Oppenheimer Fellow, he will join a year-long series of site visits and discussions at the national labs covering a wide variety of DOE missions and operations.

Throughout 2020, Connolly and the 17 other fellows will work together to study significant organizational, policy, scientific, and other issues facing the national lab system. They also will discuss these issues with current lab leaders from across the country and summarize their findings during a capstone event in Washington, D.C.

“John has demonstrated great leadership potential,” Argonne National Laboratory Director Paul Kearns wrote in his nomination letter. “With his multidisciplinary expertise, he will have a substantial impact on the DOE mission.”

Connolly will be Argonne’s fourth participant in OSELP (Ilke Arslan, interim director of Nanoscience and Technology, participated in 2019; Seth Darling, director of the Center for Molecular Engineering and director of the Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems Center, and Kirsten Laurin-Kovitz, director of Strategic Security Sciences, were in the 2018 cohort). As the deputy associate lab director for operations, Connolly oversees directorate-wide operations activities to ensure they produce the desired results and are consistent with the PSC overall strategy and mission. As AES division director, Connolly leads the division that provides a broad range of operations and technical support for both the APS and the APS Upgrade Project.

Prior to working at Argonne, Connolly had a 16-year career at Westinghouse Electric Company LLC, exclusively in the commercial nuclear power industry. He earned an MBA from Duquesne University, a BSE in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and professional certificates from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business.

OSELP evolved from the Energy Sciences Leadership Group, a 2016 DOE pilot program. Approximately 14 mid-career professionals from the national labs, academia, and industry participate in the program annually.