Carol Jean Burns is an American chemist who is deputy director of Research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Her research is in actinide coordination and organometallic chemistry. She spent a term at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. She was awarded the American Chemical Society Garvan–Olin Medal in 2021.

Contents

• Early life and education
• Research and career
• Selected publications
• References

Early life and education

Burns earned her undergraduate degree at Rice University, where she majored in chemistry. ^[1] She moved to the University of California, Berkeley for graduate studies, where she was a Hertz Foundation Fellow. Her research considered divalent lanthanide complexes with non-classical ligands. ^[2] After completing her doctorate, Burns joined Los Alamos National Laboratory as a J. Robert Oppenheimer postdoctoral fellow. ^[1]

Research and career

Burns was eventually appointed a laboratory fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she developed a new class of high-valency uranium compounds which contain metal-ligand multiple bonds. ^[3] In 2003 she left Los Alamos to work as a policy analyst for the Office of Science and Technology Policy. ^[4] Whilst at the OSTP, Burns worked on defence infrastructure and threat preparedness. Specifically, she developed the Nuclear Defence Roadmap. ^[4]

In 2004, Burns returned to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she was made head of the chemistry division. She oversaw a group of researchers who could analyze debris and identify the people responsible for terrorist attacks. ^[4] She has served as a mentor for early career researchers, and was awarded the LANL Women's Career Development Mentoring Award. ^{[4] [5]} She was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ^[6]

In 2021, Burns was awarded the Garvan–Olin Medal of the American Chemical Society. ^{[5] [7]} Later that year she was made deputy director at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. ^[1]

Selected publications

• Stosh A Kozimor; Ping Yang; Enrique R Batista; et al. (1 September 2009). "Trends in covalency for d- and f-element metallocene dichlorides identified using chlorine K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy and time-dependent density functional theory". Journal of the American Chemical Society . 131 (34): 12125–12136. doi:10.1021/JA9015759. ISSN   0002-7863. PMID   19705913. Wikidata   Q46298049.
• Arney, David S. J.; Burns, Carol J. (1995). "Synthesis and Properties of High-Valent Organouranium Complexes Containing Terminal Organoimido and Oxo Functional Groups. A New Class of Organo-f-Element Complexes" . Journal of the American Chemical Society. 117 (37): 9448–9460. doi:10.1021/ja00142a011. ISSN   0002-7863.
• Arney, David S. J.; Burns, Carol J. (1993). "Synthesis and structure of high-valent organouranium complexes containing terminal monooxo functional groups" . Journal of the American Chemical Society. 115 (21): 9840–9841. doi:10.1021/ja00074a077. ISSN   0002-7863.

References