Engineering Division’s Management Team
Daniela Leitner was appointed Engineering Division Director and the Laboratory’s Chief Engineer in October 2024. An accelerator physicist internationally known for the development of ECR ion sources and rare isotope accelerators, Leitner has held a number of leadership roles in her 20+ year career at Berkeley Lab, including work on large-scale DOE projects such as FRIB, GRETA, DESI, and the ALS-U. She served as the Engineering Division’s Deputy for Science from 2017-2024. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a graduate of the DOE Project Leadership Institute program. Leitner received her Ph.D. in Physics from the Vienna Technical University for contributions to plasma physics fusion experiments.
Mike is the Division Deputy for Operations and has been at LBNL for over 27 years. Over the course of his career at the Lab, Barry has worked in administration, finance, and project controls. Prior to holding his current position, he was the Project Controls Department Head within the Engineering Division. Currently, Barry is primarily responsible for the long- and short-term strategic leadership and planning for the division’s operational groups, with an annual operating budget of $20 million. The key areas of focus for the division include but are not limited to finance, administration, procurement, division infrastructure, communications, and environmental, health and safety. Barry received a B.S. in Business Administration and acquired a background in advanced electronics from the US Navy.
Alex is the Deputy Division leader for Particle Accelerator Technologies, with extensive experience in electrical systems for accelerators and scientific equipment. He has held key roles in major DOE projects, including RHIC and SNS, and led the U.S. contribution to the LHC’s Beam Instrumentation systems at CERN. Alex also initiated the crab cavity program for the LHC AUP Upgrade and founded the Advanced Technologies Group in ESIE. From 2016 to 2023, Alex directed the Electronics Engineering Division at SLAC, leading it through the successful completion of the LCLS-II project and overseeing operations of multiple user facilities. Upon returning to LBNL, he became system manager for the ALS-U project. Alex chairs the Scientific Program Committee for the LLRF workshop, has authored over 100 publications, and regularly reviews publications, grants and proposals. His innovations have earned him a patent and an R&D 100 award. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pavia and holds an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas. He has helped found several successful startups, and serves on the National Board of ISSNAF, the Italian network of researchers in North America.
Soren Prestemon is the Engineering Division’s Deputy of Science. He also leads the Berkeley Center for Magnet Technology, in a joint appointment between the Engineering Division and the Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division (ATAP). In addition, he currently serves as ATAP’s Division Deputy for Technology. Since arriving at Berkeley Lab in 2001, he has contributed to the development and implementation of advanced magnet technologies for the next generation of accelerators, including both colliders and light sources. He studied mathematics and computational fluid dynamics in Grenoble, France, before completing a Ph.D. in Engineering at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Robert (Bobby) Besuner is the Interim Head of Manufacturing Engineering Department. Prior to this, he served as Mechanical Engineering Deputy Department Head. His work at the Laboratory has been in systems engineering, engineering leadership, and project management roles for physics and cosmology instrumentation projects, including CMB-S4, DESI, JDEM, and SNAP. Prior to coming to Berkeley Lab, he was a contributing mechanical engineer for several space-based scientific instruments. He is a graduate of the DOE Project Leadership Institute program. Besuner received his M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Samantha Gholba has spent over two decades dedicated to service at Berkeley Lab. During her tenure, she has worked in various roles within the Engineering CAD team, including Desktop Support, Infrastructure, Mechanical CAD, PLM, and Software Development. Recognized for her expertise and leadership skills, Gholba was appointed group lead of the Engineering CAD team in 2020, and more recently, she took on the role of Department Head of Engineering CAD in 2024. Throughout her career, Gholba has developed numerous institutional systems that have had a significant impact, including Berkeley Lab’s Software.lbl.gov system, as well as systems for the ALS, JGI, IT, and JBEI, which collectively processed over $150 million across 200,000 transactions. Other notable systems she has developed include LBNL’s Document Control Center, the Web Job Order, DesignReview.lbl.gov, and Project Control’s WBS Dictionary system.
Carl Grace was appointed Electronics, Software, and Instrumentation Department Head in October, 2022. Prior to this, he led the Integrated Circuits Group. Carl’s research focuses on the design of mixed-signal integrated circuits for particle detector instrumentation in extreme environments. Prior to joining LBNL in 2010, Carl worked as a design engineer at ClariPhy Communications and Analog Devices. Carl has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings and holds 12 issued US Patents in the broad area of mixed-signal integrated circuit design. Carl received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 2004 and received an R&D 100 award in 2022 for his contributions to the reliability of cryogenic integrated circuits.
Fabrice Matichard joined Berkeley Lab in early 2021. In June 2022, he became part of the Engineering Division Management Team as the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department. He leads operations, ensuring the department supports partner divisions in their innovation missions with the highest standards of quality through the continuous development of the staff, technical capabilities and organization. He served as Lead Engineer for the DUNE Near Detector project until he joined the ALS-U project as Chief Engineer in October 2024. Prior to joining Berkeley Lab, Matichard spent 15 years working as technical lead for active isolation and opto-mechatronic systems of the gravitational wave detectors at the LIGO Laboratory, operated jointly by CalTech and MIT. Matichard received his Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the INSA – Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, France.
Dianna Jacobs is Head of the Engineering Division’s Project Controls Department. Dianna joined the Berkeley Lab in 2001 and has specialized in providing cost and schedule support to scientific projects since 2006. As a member of the Project Controls Group, she supported a series of large-scale, multi-institution scientific projects including DUSEL, DESI, and LCLS-II; she also contributed to the development, certification and maintenance of the Laboratory’s enterprise Earned Value Management system. Since her appointment as Department Head in 2020, Dianna has advocated for common systems across the laboratory, for a tailored approach in supporting infrastructure projects, and for improved communication among Project Controls groups across the DOE Office of Science Laboratories. Dianna received her Batchelor’s degree with honors in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and an MBA (with emphasis in Finance and Project Management) from the University of San Francisco. She has been a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2012.