Alberto Salleo has been selected as the first deputy director for science and technology at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Salleo is the Hong Seh and Vivian W. M. Lim Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford and has been chair of its Department of Materials Science and Engineering since 2019.

In this position, Salleo will advance SLAC’s science and technology strategy. He will also serve as the lab’s chief research officer (CRO), leading the development and implementation of research policies and partnering with fellow CROs from across the national lab system in advancing Department of Energy priorities. Additionally, Salleo will oversee the Office of Strategic Planning and the Office of Technology Transfer and Strategic Partnerships. In this position, Salleo will report to John Sarrao, the director of SLAC.

“Alberto brings to SLAC a strong balance of research expertise and leadership experience, as well as deep connections to Stanford colleagues,” said Sarrao in a SLAC announcement. “I’m excited to have him joining SLAC and look forward to the important contributions he will make in collaboration with all of you.”

“I am excited to contribute to the mission of SLAC and to strengthen its connections to Stanford,” said Salleo.

In the SLAC announcement detailing Salleo’s new position, Sarrao also thanked Steve Eglash, director of the Applied Energy Division in the Energy Sciences Directorate, who has been serving as interim CRO since September 2023, during which time he has led research policy efforts and participated on the National Laboratories CRO council.

Salleo’s research focuses on furthering a fundamental understanding of charge transport in organic semiconducting materials. His lab group’s work spans from elucidating fundamental structure-property relations in mixed ionic-electronic organic materials to developing novel electronic devices such as artificial synapses. Extrapolating from fundamental principles, the Salleo lab contributes to research in electrocatalysis, biosensing, and neuromorphic computation.

Salleo received his Laurea degree in chemistry from the University of Rome. He received his MS and PhD degrees in materials science from the University of California, Berkeley, investigating optical breakdown in fused silica. He also worked at Palo Alto Research Center before joining the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University in 2005. He is a Materials Research Society fellow and a recently elected fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Salleo has been recognized for excellence in teaching, notably as a recipient of the Walter J. Gores Award from Stanford.