Michelle Buchanan
Associate Laboratory Director,
Physical Sciences
Dr. Buchanan oversees four ORNL research divisions: Chemical Sciences, Metals and Ceramics, Physics, and Condensed Matter Sciences. Prior to assuming her current position, she served as director of the ORNL Chemical Sciences Division from October 2000 to November 2004. She served as associate director of the Life Sciences Division from January 1999 to September 2000. She initiated the Center for Structural Molecular Biology at ORNL, serving as its director from 1999 to 2003, and led the Organic and Biological Mass Spectrometry Group in the Chemical and Analytical Sciences Division (now the Chemical Sciences Division) from 1986 to 1999. She joined ORNL in 1978 after earning a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dr. Buchanan is an adjunct professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee and is on the faculty of the University's Genome Science and Technology Program. She is also director of the Center for Molecular Cellular Systems, a multi-institution program for the identification and characterization of microbial protein complexes. She is the author or co-author of more than 150 scientific publications and reports, holds two patents, and was editor of a book on Fourier transform mass spectrometry.
Dr. Buchanan received an R&D 100 Award in 1986; ORNL Technical Achievement Awards in 1985, 1989, and 1993; UT-Battelle awards for R&D Leadership in 2000 and 2002; and the Knoxville YWCA Tribute to Women award in science and technology in 2003. She currently serves as a Councilor for the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (DAC ACS) and is a member of the International Affairs Committee of the ACS. She has also served as treasurer for DAC ACS, treasurer for the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, and chair of the East Tennessee Section of the ACS. She was North American editor of Biological Mass Spectrometry and has served on the editorial boards of Analytical Chemistry, Organic Mass Spectrometry, Journal of Mass Spectrometry, Biological and Environmental Mass Spectrometry, and Fresenius' Journal of Analytical Chemistry. She currently serves on the advisory boards of the NIH Mass Spectrometry Resource at Boston University, the Biotechnology Advisory Committee at Sandia National Laboratories, and the Review Committee for the Structural Biology Program at the University of California-Los Angeles. She also serves on the Chemical Sciences Roundtable for the National Academy of Sciences.
 Office of Science |
Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
 Department of Energy |