NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Credit: Dennis Kovar Dr. Dennis Kovar has been serving as the Associate Director of Science for High Energy Physics since October 15, 2007. He served as the Associate Director of Science for Nuclear Physics (NP) from July 2003 until assuming his present responsibilities.

Dr. Kovar obtained his B.S. in Physics from the University of Texas in 1964 and his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Yale University in 1971. He held a postdoctoral appointment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before joining the scientific staff at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in 1973.

He came to NP from ANL in 1990 and served as Program Manager for Heavy Ion Nuclear Physics (1990-1998), Project Officer for RHIC (1996-1999) and Director of the Division of Nuclear Physics (1998-2003), prior to becoming the Associate Director of Science for Nuclear Physics.

As a research nuclear physicist, he produced over 90 refereed articles, primarily in the area of low energy heavy ion nuclear reactions, nuclear structure and particle detection techniques and instrumentation. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Kovar was honored with the Meritorious Presidential Executive Rank Award in 2004. Department of Energy