Mike Kluse is Laboratory Director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy. He was named Interim Director in January 2007, and appointed Director in May 2008. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Kluse had responsibility for all of PNNL’s national security business, which includes science and technology for DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, DOE's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and the Intelligence Community.
From 1996 through 2002, Mr. Kluse was the Vice President and General Manager of Battelle’s Navy Sector. Before transferring to PNNL in 1997, he served as Vice President of Battelle’s Defense Engineering business that totaled more than $500 million annually. In this capacity, he had responsibility for 400 staff and several technical product lines. In addition to staff and facilities in Columbus that served a wide variety of national security clients, the Defense Engineering business had operations in Massachusetts; Washington, D.C; Utah; and Texas. Mr. Kluse also served as the central coordinator for the National Security Division’s Internal Research and Development Program.
Mr. Kluse joined Battelle in 1976 as a defense and space systems research scientist. His research focused on high-fidelity simulation of aerospace and weapons systems; physical performance modeling of optical, electro-optical, infrared, and radar target acquisition sensors; and variance reduction techniques in large-scale simulations.
Before joining Battelle, Mr. Kluse served as an officer in the United States Air Force, where he was assigned to the Freeman Mathematical Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base. There, he was a pioneer in developing new computational methods for the real-time processing of radar and telemetry data for live weapons testing. He was awarded the Air Force Commendation Medal for his accomplishments.
On the national and regional level, Mr. Kluse is a member of the Institute of Nuclear and Materials Management, National Utility Training and Education Center Board of Directors, U.S. Air Force Association, U.S. Army Science Board, Washington Roundtable Board of Directors, Washington State University Tri-Cities Advisory Committee Washington, and Technology Alliance Board of Directors. At the local level, Mr. Kluse is a member of the Junior Achievement of the Greater Tri-Cities Advisory Board of Directors and Tri-City Industrial Development Council.
He holds a B.S. degree in Systems Analysis from Miami University, and a M.S. degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from The Ohio State University.
