long island

The man trying to steer Brookhaven National Laboratory out of the tempest that consumed it when the local community reacted furiously to a radioactive leak from the laboratory is John Marburger, former president of the nearby State University of New York at Stony Brook (Nature 386, 3; 1997).

Marburger is a soft-spoken administrator whose style contrasts to that of Nick Samios, the brilliant, pony-tailed physicist who led Brookhaven for 15 years. Samios, and the university consortium which managed the lab for the Department of Energy, departed soon after the discovery of the leak.

In management terms, “this laboratory experienced a catastrophe in 1997,” says Marburger. “The quality of science in the lab was so good that the Department of Energy was willing to accept an obsolescent management style. People were oblivious to the actual state of the management systems here.”

With much of the day-to-day management of science delegated to Peter Paul, the deputy director, Marburger is concentrating on the lab's external relations, which he says are improving.

But a decision to restart the High Flux Beam Reactor — one of three important user facilities at Brookhaven, closed since the discovery of the leak from a basin storing its spent fuel — is not expected until early next year, or later. “It's a year later than I expected, and I'm disappointed in the schedule,” says Marburger.

Given the opposition of local congressman, Michael Forbes (who this week switched from Republican to Democrat), and tight budgets, Marburger finds it hard to muster much optimism that the reactor will reopen at all, though “it is hard to imagine it not reopening, because it is so badly needed”.

Since Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA), a new contractor involving the research consultancy Battelle, and Stony Brook, took over operation of Brookhaven last year, rumours have circulated that Battelle will cut staff and steer the lab towards technology which it can sell.

Marburger denies that either is being considered. “Battelle is delighted to be associated with the basic science at this lab,” he says, adding that a shift to technology “would be a disaster. As president of BSA, I intend to maintain the fundamental characteristics of this laboratory.”

As for staff, Marburger says the lab needs to expand its 3,100 staff, to generate the research income needed to cover its overheads. “I'd like to increase the staff to 4,000,” he says.

“We believe our basic science capability is not being fully exploited,” Marburger says. “Our basic strengths are in fields that are a little old-fashioned.” He declines to identify which fields, but says that growth areas should include structural biology, imaging technology, chemistry and materials science.