Government Awards and Honors
2007 Awards
PNNL Scientist Honored with National Department of Energy Award
John Zachara, a scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has been recognized by DOE with the prestigious E.O. Lawrence Award. The Lawrence Award honors scientists and engineers at mid-career for exceptional contributions in research and development that support DOE and its mission to advance the national, economic and energy security of the United States.
Zachara is the sixth PNNL scientist to win the DOE award since its inception in 1959. He will be honored by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman at a ceremony in late March in Washington, D.C. DOE announced the eight winners earlier today.
Lawrence Awards are given in each of the following seven categories: Chemistry; Environmental Science and Technology; Life Sciences (including Medicine); Materials Research; National Security; Nuclear Technology; and Physics. Zachara was honored in the Environmental Science and Technology category. Each Lawrence Award recipient receives a $50,000 honorarium as well as a citation signed by the Secretary of Energy and a gold medal bearing the likeness of Ernest Orlando Lawrence.
Zachara is the senior chief scientist for environmental chemistry in the Chemical and Materials Sciences Division of PNNL's Fundamental Sciences Directorate. His research has focused on chemical interactions of toxic metals and radionuclides with mineral surfaces and microorganisms that control the rate at which these contaminants move through soils, sediments and groundwater. He has published more than 125 scholarly articles on these subjects. Zachara also has been instrumental in bringing teams of top scientists to Hanford to collaborate with PNNL and Hanford scientists to resolve complex issues of subsurface contaminant migration.
Zachara earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Bucknell University in 1973, a master's degree in soil and watershed chemistry from the University of Washington in 1979, and a doctorate in soil chemistry from Washington State University in 1986. He has been at PNNL since 1979. (announced 2/7/2007)