Brian Hitson

Biography

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 OSTIs 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 DOEs 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.  Brian played a key role in the development of WorldWideScience.org and in the establishment of the WorldWideScience Alliance.  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).