Sandia's Young named deputy director at PNNL

Biochemist named to manage national laboratory's science and technology portfolio

Malin M. Young, a biochemist with extensive experience leading bioenergy and national security research programs, has been named deputy director for science and technology at the Department of Energy's  in Richland. Young is currently the director of the Biological and Engineering Sciences Center at DOE's ' Livermore, Calif., campus.

As deputy director, Young will integrate and marshal PNNL's science and technology capabilities to address critical national challenges in science, energy, the environment and national security. She also will manage PNNL's institutional science and technology investments, and technology commercialization efforts. 

"Dr. Young will be a terrific addition to PNNL," said . "She has superb leadership skills, understands the challenges scientists face and knows how to build programs. She's passionate about science and about translating science into societal impact, and her expertise in biology and chemistry will serve us well as we pursue our scientific vision." 

In her current role, Young is responsible for leading Sandia's exploratory bioscience efforts and for the development of technology to address pressing national needs in energy security, homeland security and national defense. She is an expert in rational drug design, bioinformatics, mass-spectrometry data analysis, and protein-structure prediction and modeling. Young has published more than 30 peer-reviewed papers and has three patents.

Young joined Sandia at its Livermore campus in 1999, where she initiated a research program that applied new experimental and computational methods to solve the structures of proteins embedded in cell membranes. Since 2003, she has managed multiple research organizations at Sandia, and has managed bioenergy and national security programs funded by DOE's Office of Science, the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense, and the National Institutes of Health.

Young — a Redmond, Washington native — earned a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in genetics from  in Corvallis, and a doctorate in pharmaceutical chemistry from the .

Young will begin her new assignment in mid-October.