Michelle V. Buchanan is the associate laboratory director (ALD) for Physical Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In this role she is responsible for the Chemical Sciences, Materials Science and Technology, Physics, and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences research divisions. She is also the program manager for the Basic Energy Sciences Program at ORNL. Prior to assuming the role of ALD, she served as the director of the Chemical Sciences Division, associate director of the Life Sciences Division, and group leader for Organic and Biological Mass Spectrometry at ORNL. She has over 150 scientific publications and reports, holds two patents, and was editor of a book on Fourier transform mass spectrometry. Buchanan has held positions in the Analytical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society and the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Recently, Buchanan was named a member of the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology, National Academy of Sciences. Over the past decade, she has worked at the national level helping define basic research needs in a number of key energy-related areas. Buchanan earned her B.S. in chemistry from the University of Kansas, and her Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.