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Senate

Tribute to Mike Witherell

2026-08-05 Issue 128 Showing 1–1 of 1

Official Congressional Record ↗

Alex Padilla

Democrat

“I want to praise a man who ran a government research lab. He helped spend taxpayer money on science projects. He won awards. Some of his employees also won awards. I want to thank him for his government service.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate Michael Witherell on a remarkable career spent in service of scientific achievement and discovery as he steps down after a decade of leadership as the eighth director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. As the Director of Berkeley Lab, Mike dedicated himself to pursuing transformational breakthroughs across all areas of science and helped its researchers deliver scientific solutions addressing critical national priorities. Mike Witherell was born on September 22, 1949, in Toledo, OH. He would go on to receive a bachelor of science from the University of Michigan in 1968. After earning his Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1973, Mike served on the faculty at Princeton until 1981 and then found himself at the University of California, Santa Barbara until 1999. While working at UC Santa Barbara, Mike won the W. K. H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics from the American Physical Society in 1990 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998. After serving as the director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory for 6 years, Mike returned to UC Santa Barbara in 2005 as the vice chancellor for research. He was then appointed director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2016, a position he held until June of 2026. In his decade of service leading Berkeley Lab, Mike strengthened the lab's position as a world-leading institution for breakthrough science through significant real-world solutions in energy and pioneering programs in quantum informational science and artificial intelligence. This record of scientific excellence resulted in 31 members of the lab being elected to the National Academies of Science and Engineering, two National Medals, and three Nobel Prizes, including most recently in 2025 for groundbreaking research in quantum computing. Thanks to his hard work and dedication, Berkeley Lab has contributed greatly to the mission of the Department of Energy, including becoming a core contributor to the Genesis Mission. None of these efforts would have been possible without the passion, vision, and excellence that Mike poured into the lab during his storied tenure. As Mike embarks on this new chapter in his life, his absence will undoubtedly be felt by all those fortunate enough to have collaborated with him. I extend my heartfelt wishes to Mike and his family for a joyful retirement.

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