Brian A. Hitson
Brian A. Hitson has been appointed director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Scientific and Technical Information in Oak Ridge, officials said this week.
Hitson had been acting director of OSTI since January 12. OSTI’s former longtime director, Walter L. Warnick, retired January 3.
Hitson has held a number of positions at OSTI, most recently serving as associate director for administration and information services. In that position, he was responsible for international information exchanges, archival digitization and preservation, classified and sensitive information, cost-reimbursable product development, and administrative and financial management.
Hitson has chaired or served as a representative on numerous national and international information management groups including the WorldWideScience Alliance, International Council for Scientific and Technical Information, and agreements under both the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Energy Agency. Hitson has led the implementation of the DOE public access plan for scholarly publications, the first such plan to have been approved by the White House, and he personally forged cooperative working relationships on public access with federal research agencies, the publishing community, and other key stakeholders, DOE said in a statement Wednesday.
“I am pleased to welcome Brian Hitson as the director of the Office of Scientific and Technical Information,†said Jeff Salmon, deputy director for resource management for DOE’s Office of Science. “OSTI’s mission is to advance science and sustain technological creativity by making R&D findings available and useful to the Department of Energy researchers and the public.â€
The Office of Scientific and Technical Information is at Oak Ridge Turnpike and Science.gov Way in east Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy OSTI)
OSTI is the DOE office that collects, preserves, and disseminates DOE-sponsored research and development results of R&D projects or other funded activities at DOE labs and facilities nationwide and grantees at universities and other institutions. The information is typically in the form of technical documents, conference papers, articles, multimedia, and software, collectively referred to as scientific and technical information, or STI.
OSTI provides access to that information using web-based searchable databases. Once DOE’s R&D results are incorporated into the databases, they are made available to single-point-of-access web portals such as the National Library of Energy (BETA) (gateway to information across DOE), Science.gov (U.S. science information from 15 federal agencies), and WorldWideScience.org (global science information from over 70 countries and counting), all of which are managed by OSTI.
OSTI’s headquarters is in Oak Ridge, and Hitson will continue to be based here. A new organization chart shows Lorrie A. Johnson is acting associate director of administration and information services, Jeffrey S. Given is assistant director of information systems, and Mark A. Martin is assistant director of program integration.
Warnick had been OSTI director since 1997.
Angi Agle says
Just a thought, but it seems like every story on a new executive hire or promotion should include whether that person makes their home in Oak Ridge. Not that anyone is forced to live here, but it’s the most relevant part of the story to most of us.
johnhuotari says
Angi,
I hadn’t thought of asking that question but will consider it for future stories like this. I know some, but not all, of the DOE/contractor press releases for these types of stories have included that information.
While I don’t know where Brian lives, I can say they that I periodically see him and other OSTI employees at places like Kroger, the Farmer’s Market, and Friday night football games, so I assume that a number of them live in or near Oak Ridge. And when I still had a Rush membership, I ran into OSTI employees there as well, including Brian, if I remember correctly.
(Note: In the interest of full disclosure, I did some writing work as an independent contractor for IIa at OSTI before my wife and I started Oak Ridge Today.)
John
Angi Agle says
Thanks, John. IIa and OSTI are wonderful organizations, and it would be “good press” for them to publicize the executive employees who choose to live in Oak Ridge.
Ellen Smith says
I like Angi’s suggestion. Because this is something that people in the community often wonder about, it’s a good question for the press to ask.
Dave Smith says
Angi, that’s a good question, and relevant. I’ll bet you’re already aware that very few executives working at Oak Ridge federal contractors choose to live in Oak Ridge. The number is about about 1 in 5, according to research done by KNS reporter Frank Munger.
For a breakdown on which executives lives where, see
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2010/07/10/13_out_of_64_execs_lives_in_oa/
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2010/06/01/where_do_oak_ridge_execs_live/
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2010/06/02/where_do_oak_ridge_execs_live_1/
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2010/06/02/where_do_oak_ridge_execs_live_2/
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2010/06/07/where_do_oak_ridge_execs_live_3/
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2010/06/02/heres_more_on_my_surveyandy/
http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2010/06/04/where_do_oak_ridge_execs_live_part_v/
I wonder why no one in Oak Ridge city government seems to be interested in simply asking these folks making six-figure salaries why they chose to live somewhere other than Oak Ridge?