Gary Wiederrecht

Dr. Gary Wiederrecht is director of the Nanoscience and Technology (NST) division and the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility at Argonne National Laboratory that provides researchers with access to advanced tools and expertise for nanoscale science and materials research.

Dr. Wiederrecht’s research focuses on the optical properties and dynamics of nanoscale materials, including ultrafast excitation processes in nanoparticles, light harvesting and solar energy conversion, strongly coupled hybrid nanostructures, and quantum optics. His work explores how light interacts with nanomaterials and how these interactions can be used to understand and control material properties.

Wiederrecht joined Argonne in 1992 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry division and became a scientific staff member in 1995, later advancing to senior scientist in 2013. In 2006, he joined NST and CNM as the founding group leader of the Nanophotonics group. He became interim deputy director of NST and CNM in October 2019 and deputy director in July 2020. He served as interim director beginning in January 2025 before being named director.

Wiederrecht earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1987 and a doctorate in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992. He was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2016 and is a graduate of the Strategic Laboratory Leadership Program developed by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His honors include an R&D 100 Award, the U.S. Department of Energy Young Scientist Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the Argonne National Laboratory Distinguished Service Award. He has authored or co-authored more than 160 peer-reviewed research articles and holds six patents.