Carol Jean Burns is an American chemist who is deputy director of Research at

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...

. Her research is in actinide coordination and organometallic chemistry. She spent a term at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. She was awarded the American Chemical Society

Garvan–Olin Medal The Francis P. Garvan–John M. Olin Medal is an annual award that recognizes distinguished scientific accomplishment, leadership and service to chemistry by women chemists. The Award is offered by the American Chemical Society (ACS), and consist ...

in 2021.

Early life and education

Burns earned her undergraduate degree at Rice University, where she majored in chemistry. She moved to the University of California, Berkeley for graduate studies, where she was a Hertz Foundation Fellow. Her research considered divalent lanthanide complexes with non-classical ligands. After completing her doctorate, Burns joined Los Alamos National Laboratory as a J. Robert Oppenheimer postdoctoral fellow.

Research and career

Burns was eventually appointed a laboratory fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she developed a new class of high-valency

uranium compounds Uranium compounds are compounds formed by the element uranium (U). Although uranium is a radioactive actinide, its compounds are well studied due to its long half-life and its applications. It usually forms in the +4 and +6 oxidation states, althoug ...

which contain metal-ligand multiple bonds. In 2003 she left Los Alamos to work as a policy analyst for the

Office of Science and Technology Policy An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

. Whilst at the OSTP, Burns worked on defence infrastructure and threat preparedness. Specifically, she developed the Nuclear Defence Roadmap. In 2004, Burns returned to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she was made head of the chemistry division. She oversaw a group of researchers who could analyze debris and identify the people responsible for terrorist attacks. She has served as a mentor for early career researchers, and was awarded the LANL Women's Career Development Mentoring Award. She was elected Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. In 2021, Burns was awarded the

of the American Chemical Society. Later that year she was made deputy director at the

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Carol J American chemists Rice University alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science American women chemists Recipients of the Garvan–Olin Medal Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American women