Press Release 07-186
NSF Appoints New Director of Office of Integrative Activities

W. Lance Haworth will become director of NSF's Office of Integrative Activities in January 2008. Credit and Larger Version

December 12, 2007

W. Lance Haworth has been appointed the new director of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Integrative Activities. He will begin his position in January.

In his new position, Haworth will work in partnership with NSF's six scientific directorates and other major offices to develop and promote a performance-based approach to the foundation's management of its investment portfolio. The job requires him to coordinate the foundation's traditional mission of funding transformative science while encouraging support for new initiatives set forth by NSF leadership. The Office of Integrative Activities manages several high-profile programs, including Science and Technology Centers, Major Research Instrumentation, and EPSCoR, which exists to strengthen research and education in science and engineering throughout the United States. Haworth replaces Nathaniel Pitts, who is retiring from NSF at the end of this year after 30 years of federal service.

"The Office of Integrative Activities has a key role in working across organizational boundaries as well as providing policy support to the Director's Office," said NSF Director Arden Bement. "Developing effective ways to transcend traditional boundaries, and bring very different scientific cultures together for the benefit of science and society, without compromising excellence, is a critically important challenge for the Foundation."

Prior to this assignment, Haworth led the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at NSF. He joined NSF's Division of Materials Research in 1984. He served as the first program director for Materials Research Groups, then for Materials Research Laboratories, and led planning and implementation for the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program launched in 1994. He was executive officer for Division of Materials Research from 1996-2006, and acting division director from 2006-2007.

"Dr. Haworth brings to his new assignment a wealth of experience and achievement in stimulating and supporting interdisciplinary research and education at NSF," Bement added. "This ranges from program management experience for individual investigators, groups, centers and major facilities in materials and nanoscale science and engineering, to the leadership of a major interdisciplinary NSF division, and includes the initiation and development of effective new programs for broadening participation and international collaboration."

Haworth was educated at Liverpool University, the University of Alberta, and Yale University. He was a postdoctoral research associate in metallurgy at the University of Illinois, and a faculty member in metallurgical engineering at Wayne State University from 1972-1985. He was a visiting scientist and then vice president with Central Solar Energy Research Corporation in Detroit, Mich., from 1977 to 1979. His research activities focused on fatigue damage mechanisms, structure-property relationships in materials and nondestructive evaluation.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Diane Banegas, National Science Foundation (703) 292-4489 dbanegas@nsf.gov

Program Contacts
W. Lance Haworth, National Science Foundation (703) 292-4916 lhaworth@nsf.gov

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2009, its budget is $9.5 billion, which includes $3.0 billion provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 44,400 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

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