Brinkman nominated as DOE Office of Science Director.

President Obama has nominated William F. Brinkman to be Director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science. He succeeds Raymond Orbach, who held both that position and the position of Under Secretary for Science. Steven Koonin has been nominated for the latter position separately.

Brinkman is currently a Senior Research Physicist in the Physics Department at Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Missouri in 1965. After a one year postdoctoral position at Oxford University, he joined Bell Laboratories in 1966, rising to the position of Director of the Chemical Physics Research Laboratory there in 1974 and later Director of the Physics Research Division 1981-84. In 1984, he moved to the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque as Vice President of Research. In 1987, he returned to Bell Laboratories as Executive Director of the Physics Research Division and later became Physical Sciences Research Vice President (1993) and Vice President Research (2000). He joined Princeton University upon his retirement from Bell Labs.