Mike Kluse's job as interim director for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has become permanent, said his employer, Battelle Memorial Institute, which manages the Richland lab for the Department of Energy.

The announcement comes 16 months after Battelle selec-ted Kluse as interim director after Len Peters stepped down at the end of 2006. He had been at PNNL since 1997 and was responsible for all the Richland lab's national security business. The work involved oversight for science and technology for DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, DOE's Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense.

In his role as interim director, Kluse worked to make lab operations more efficient and on a project to develop a Tri-City high school focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. He also took over leadership as the lab looks to build new facilities to replace old buildings now being used by the lab at in the 300 Area at Hanford.

Before coming to PNNL, Kluse, 57, who has a master of science degree in industrial and systems engineering from Ohio State University, was vice president of Battelle's Defense Engineering business that totaled $500 million annually.

He joined Battelle in 1976 as a defense and space systems research scientist.

"We think it is an excellent choice," said Gary Peterson, Tri-City Development Council vice president of Hanford. "I believe this is the first time the DOE Office of Science has put a non-Ph.D. in a position like this (at any national lab). There is no question Mike Kluse has earned every inch of it. He has his master's and bachelor's degrees and has served in the military," Peterson said.

"It goes to show they have found someone who has leadership skills. He is superb," Peterson added.

Achievements at the lab during Kluse's leadership include:

w Reduced energy use and operating expenses.

w Won DOE support from the Office of Biological and Environmental Research to update research capability at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, including procuring a 163-teraflop HP supercomputer to boost PNNL's high-performance computing capability.

w Earning straight A's for science and technology programs from DOE for operation of the lab.

Kluse serves on the Washington Roundtable board of directors, the Washington State University Tri-Cities Advisory Committee and the Technology Alliance board of directors. He also is a member of the Junior Achievement of the Greater Tri-Cities Advisory board of directors and the Tri-City Industrial Development Council.

PNNL has 4,200 employees and a $750 million annual budget.