Kawtar Hafidi is Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences and Engineering at Argonne National Laboratory. She oversees five Argonne research divisions and two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) user facilities conducting fundamental and applied research in nuclear and high energy physics, materials science, chemical science and engineering, and nanoscience and technology.

During her over 20 years of experience in leading and conducting fundamental research at major accelerator facilities in the United States and Europe, she has distinguished herself as a scientific leader. Before assuming the role of Associate Laboratory Director, she served as the director of Argonne’s Physics division, where she established Argonne as an isotope producer lab and established the Argonne Trace Radioisotope Analysis Center (TRACER), a new, permanent home for the nation’s only laser-based krypton atom-counting machine.

Previously, as the laboratory’s Associate Chief Scientist for Laboratory-Directed Research & Development, Dr. Hafidi established processes aimed at supporting Argonne’s most important scientific priorities and assuring the greatest possible return on early scientific investment.

From 2013 to 2014, Dr. Hafidi was detailed to DOE’s Office of Nuclear Physics, where she demonstrated her ability to forge strong relationships within the U.S. physics community while managing a suite of major projects devoted to achieving America’s scientific missions in physics.

Dr. Hafidi received her Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Paris XI University, Orsay, France. Her research has focused on the experimental study of quantum chromodynamics in the strong regime, with emphasis on nucleon form factors, flavor decomposition, spin structure, and transverse momentum dependent distributions. She is the author of more than 230 publications and has given more than 90 invited talks at international conferences, universities and laboratories.

Dr. Hafidi has completed Argonne’s highly selective Strategic Laboratory Leadership Program, a non-degree executive leadership program at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. She has also received extensive management and leadership education and training through the American Physical Society and the Association of Women in Science.

Dr. Hafidi has been recognized for her many scientific accomplishments, including her being nominated as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. She has also been a recipient of the Argonne Commercialization Excellence Award, Argonne Women in Science and Technology Diversity Award, UChicago Argonne LLC Pinnacle of Education Award, American Women in Science Innovator Award, U.S. DOE Office of Science Outstanding Mentor Award, and Commissariat à L’Énergie Atomique Graduate Research Excellence Fellowship.