The Ohio State University
Office of Student Life
Buckeye Leadership Fellows Program
March 17, 2014 by Eddie Pauline
BLF will host OSU Trustee and CEO of Battelle, Dr. Jeff Wadsworth, on April 7th. Student Leaders across campus have been invited to attend. Email osublf@osu.edu with any questions.
Jeff Wadsworth was appointed to the board by Governor Strickland in June 2010. He has been President and CEO of Battelle Memorial Institute since January 2009. Battelle is the world’s largest nonprofit research and development organization, executing about $6.5B of work annually and employing about 22,500 people.
Formed in 1925 as a charitable trust and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle counts among its successes the development of the Xerox machine, pioneering work on the compact disc, and a number of innovations in medical technology, telecommunications, environmental waste treatment, homeland security, and transportation. Battelle has spun off new ventures and companies in fiber optics, pharmaceuticals, energy, electronics, and informatics. Its principal businesses today are fee-for-service contract research, laboratory operations, and commercial ventures, executing more than 5,000 projects for some 1,500 industrial and government clients throughout the world.
Jeff formerly led Battelle’s Global Laboratory Operations business, where he oversaw the management or co-management of six national laboratories of the U.S. Department of Energy (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center. He also led the expansion of Battelle’s operations into China, Japan, Korea, and India and the development of partnerships with the private sector in those nations. In 2009, a consortium including Battelle was awarded a contract to manage the National Nuclear Laboratory of the United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change.
Jeff was educated at Sheffield University in England, where he studied metallurgy, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1975. He was awarded a Doctor of Metallurgy degree in 1991 for his published work and received the highest recognition conferred by the university, an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree, in July 2004. Jeff came to the United States in 1976 and has worked at Stanford University, Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 2002, he joined Battelle and served as a member of the White House Transition Planning Office for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. From 2003 to June 2007, Jeff was director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest multipurpose science laboratory.
Jeff has authored or co-authored nearly 300 scientific papers and 1 book, and he has been granted 4 U.S. patents. His many honors and awards include six honorary doctorates, two honorary professorships from Chinese universities, the 2013 Acta Materialia Award in Materials and Society, and election to the rank of Fellow of three technical societies. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2005 and the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2011.
As a former board member of Achieve, Inc., and currently the Business Higher Education Forum, Jeff is helping to lead national efforts to enhance science, technology, engineering and math education. He is also strengthening education and the economy in Central Ohio through his engagement with a number of local civic and community organizations.
Term: 6/17/2010-5/13/2019
