Brian A. Hitson, Director

Photo of OSTI Director Brian Hitson

Director of OSTI:  Brian A. Hitson

Brian A. Hitson is Director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), a DOE corporate function that is managed by the Office of Science.  OSTI fulfills agency-wide responsibilities to collect, preserve, and disseminate scientific and technical information emanating from DOE research and development (R&D) activities.

Prior to becoming Director, Brian led a range of OSTI's programmatic and administrative activities, including strategic planning, budget formulation and execution, information product development, and cost-reimbursable project management.  He has also managed OSTI's international information exchange programs, administrative and financial management, classified and sensitive information programs, and the digitization and preservation of a 1.2 million scientific document repository.

Brian co-authored the DOE Public Access Plan, developing a strategy for implementing public access to the scholarly publications resulting from DOE's R&D efforts, and, along with DOE, Office of Science, and OSTI colleagues, he led the launch of the DOE Public Access Gateway for Energy and Science, or DOE PAGES®.  He also formed partnerships with the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense in increasing public access to those agencies' R&D results.  As Director, he has led strategic efforts to improve discoverability and linkages between diverse, related research objects, including publications, datasets, and scientific software available at OSTI.GOV.  He represents DOE in interagency open science initiatives; serves as the U.S. representative to the IAEA's International Nuclear Information System (INIS); and chairs the technical activities committee of the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI).

A member of the federal Senior Executive Service, Brian has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and a Master's in Business Administration, both from the University of Tennessee.