U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information Deputy Director RL Scott
Since coming to the Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) in 1987, RL has provided vision and direction to the organization, from the first DOE home page to the most current OSTI product. He also pioneered consortium buying of scientific journal literature with Department-wide agreements between major publishers and Departmental organizations and National Laboratories. His focus is to always place OSTI in the technological forefront in the use of scientific advances to deliver information in new and innovative ways that meet the needs of the Department's demanding R&D activities. His vision for the creation and delivery of the full complement of scientific and technical information products from the Department to U.S. industry, educators, students, intergovernmental and international partners and the general public led to a National Library Initiative. This initiative was the foundation for the interagency FirstGov science portal called Science.gov.
RL's leadership and vision stem from broad scientific and engineering experience which has led him to better focus on the needs of the scientific information user and provide products that address those user's needs. Beginning in 1968 RL joined the City of Chicago as an Environmental Engineer where he was one of three principals responsible for the Industrial Pollution Control Program. He also conducted the first emission inventory of the City of Chicago, developed a computerized automotive emission inventory system for noise and air contaminants, and managed a program requiring industry expenditures in control technology that exceeded 100 million dollars during a period of four years. Subsequently with the Energy Research and Development Administration (precursor to DOE) he initiated, conducted and directed environment safety and health research and served as technical support to the Assistant Administrator for Fossil Energy, evaluating the nature of environmental monitoring and programmatic approaches for new technology and synthetic fuel facilities. These experiences led RL to direct a team that provided technical management and direction for the research and development of atmospheric and pressurized fluidized bed combustion technology. These efforts included numerous economic process and system studies (sensitivity studies) of advanced combustion and gasification technologies leading to better research strategies and commercialization. Subsequently RL served on the team that provided technical expertise and management in support of the newly formed Clean Coal Program.
During his tenure at OSTI, RL has managed all aspects of the DOE OSTI information program from computer operations, printing plant, microfiche production, information receipt and processing, dissemination, records management, classified operations, program planning, project management, new technology development and deployment, and new initiatives. He has also served as Tiger Team Leader for the K-25 site and Progress Assessment Team Leader for the Savannah River site. He successfully migrated the National Energy Software Center to OSTI where it now operates as the Energy Science and Technology Software Center. He was the DOE Point of Contact, White House Technology Reinvestment Project for Digital libraries and Authoring Tools and received the Government Computer News award for Excellence in Information Resources Management.
Apart from degrees from the University of Illinois and University of Pittsburgh, RL is also a graduate of the DOE Senior Executive Service Candidate Program and the Federal Executive Institute. RL is a Samuel T. Owens Fellow and an American Public Works Fellow. He and his wife Gayle reside in Clinton, TN and are blessed with 4 children and 7 grandchildren.