23. Doon Gibbs

At Brookhaven National Laboratory, the quest to understand the forces that make up our universe continues at light speed, or rather as close to that velocity as humanly possible due to the most advanced technology America has to muster. Under the able guidance of Doon Gibbs, BNL is on the forefront of discovery in many fields, with a budget topping more than $700 million and 3,000 employees hard at work. The National Synchroton Light Source II is now up and running, and researchers are putting it through its paces as they explore the “strange magnetic metal” that produces superconductivity, among other fascinating experiments. The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, the only machine in the world capable of colliding ions as heavy as gold, is yielding groundbreaking insights into the subatomic world; the Hard X-Ray Nanoprobe Beamline is achieving amazing microscopic resolution, revolutionizing nanoscale imaging; while the Northeast Solar Energy Research Center is looking more promising by the day. Science is alive and well on LI, just off Exit 68, and that’s the way Gibbs likes it.