Ames National Laboratory names new director

The Ames National Laboratory will welcome its new director this summer after Adam Schwartz announced his transition to part-time work. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

The U.S. Department of Energy Ames National Laboratory will welcome a new director this summer to lead the lab in its work developing new materials and finding solutions for problems impacting the U.S. and the world.

Iowa State University said in a news release that Karl Mueller has been chosen to lead the Ames National Laboratory after current director Adam Schwartz announced his intent to step down. Mueller will start at the university on June 1.

Schwartz has served as director since 2014 and will move to part-time work supporting “business development for critical materials research at the lab and with its partners,” according to the release.

“For more than 75 years, Iowa State University has operated the Ames National Laboratory, producing scientific breakthroughs that have shaped history and addressed society’s most pressing challenges,” ISU President Wendy Wintersteen said in the release. “I am confident Dr. Mueller is the right person to advance this legacy of excellence.”

Mueller will leave his director position at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, to come to the Ames lab, according to the release. There he headed the Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate program development office. Other positions he’s held include chief science and technology officer for the lab directorate and chemistry professor at Pennsylvania State University.

In addition to his work directing the lab, the release stated Mueller will also work in the university’s chemistry department as a tenured professor.

“I am honored to join Ames National Laboratory, an institution renowned for its pioneering work in rare earth elements, quantum materials, and sustainable energy technologies,” Mueller said in the release. “The laboratory’s excellence in materials discovery and characterization, combined with its deep integration with Iowa State University, creates unique opportunities to address our nation’s critical science and technology challenges. I look forward to building on Ames’ distinguished legacy of scientific innovation to advance both fundamental research and strategic technologies.”