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News Release 07-186

NSF Appoints New Director of Office of Integrative Activities

W. Lance Haworth

W. Lance Haworth will become director of NSF's Office of Integrative Activities in January 2008.


December 12, 2007

This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.

W. Lance Haworth has been appointed the new director of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Integrative Activities. He will begin his position in January.

In his new position, Haworth will work in partnership with NSF's six scientific directorates and other major offices to develop and promote a performance-based approach to the foundation's management of its investment portfolio. The job requires him to coordinate the foundation's traditional mission of funding transformative science while encouraging support for new initiatives set forth by NSF leadership. The Office of Integrative Activities manages several high-profile programs, including Science and Technology Centers, Major Research Instrumentation, and EPSCoR, which exists to strengthen research and education in science and engineering throughout the United States. Haworth replaces Nathaniel Pitts, who is retiring from NSF at the end of this year after 30 years of federal service.

"The Office of Integrative Activities has a key role in working across organizational boundaries as well as providing policy support to the Director's Office," said NSF Director Arden Bement. "Developing effective ways to transcend traditional boundaries, and bring very different scientific cultures together for the benefit of science and society, without compromising excellence, is a critically important challenge for the Foundation."

Prior to this assignment, Haworth led the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at NSF. He joined NSF's Division of Materials Research in 1984. He served as the first program director for Materials Research Groups, then for Materials Research Laboratories, and led planning and implementation for the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program launched in 1994. He was executive officer for Division of Materials Research from 1996-2006, and acting division director from 2006-2007.

"Dr. Haworth brings to his new assignment a wealth of experience and achievement in stimulating and supporting interdisciplinary research and education at NSF," Bement added. "This ranges from program management experience for individual investigators, groups, centers and major facilities in materials and nanoscale science and engineering, to the leadership of a major interdisciplinary NSF division, and includes the initiation and development of effective new programs for broadening participation and international collaboration."

Haworth was educated at Liverpool University, the University of Alberta, and Yale University. He was a postdoctoral research associate in metallurgy at the University of Illinois, and a faculty member in metallurgical engineering at Wayne State University from 1972-1985. He was a visiting scientist and then vice president with Central Solar Energy Research Corporation in Detroit, Mich., from 1977 to 1979. His research activities focused on fatigue damage mechanisms, structure-property relationships in materials and nondestructive evaluation.

-NSF-

Media Contacts
Diane Banegas, National Science Foundation, (703) 292-4489, email: dbanegas@nsf.gov

Program Contacts
W. Lance Haworth, National Science Foundation, (703) 292-4916, email: lhaworth@nsf.gov

The U.S. National Science Foundation propels the nation forward by advancing fundamental research in all fields of science and engineering. NSF supports research and people by providing facilities, instruments and funding to support their ingenuity and sustain the U.S. as a global leader in research and innovation. With a fiscal year 2023 budget of $9.5 billion, NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 40,000 competitive proposals and makes about 11,000 new awards. Those awards include support for cooperative research with industry, Arctic and Antarctic research and operations, and U.S. participation in international scientific efforts.

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