After serving 19 years as the director of the Ames Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy and nine years as the director of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology at Iowa State, Thomas J. Barton has announced he will retire from his position.

After Feb. 28, when he will step down as director, Barton will return to the teaching job he once had.

“I like to teach; I like students,” Barton said.

“I’m kind of isolated from them up here,” he said, referring to his third-floor office in the Ames Laboratory.

Barton will once again have the title of distinguished professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State, the same title he had until 1988 when he became the director at Ames Laboratory.

“I am looking forward to going back and mingling with and working with students, because that’s what this university is all about,” Barton said.

John Brighton, vice president for research and economic development at Iowa State, will lead the faculty of Ames Laboratory and IPRT in the search for a replacement director.

“Between the time that we get a new director and the time that Dr. Barton will be leaving, we would need an interim director,” Brighton said.

He added that an interim director has yet to be named, but a decision will be made by the latter part of January.

Brighton listed several criteria to describe the kind of person he would be looking for as the new permanent director.

“We are looking for somebody who is very enthusiastic about the research aspects of what’s done in the laboratory and who has a strong scientific background,” he said.

Brighton said the Ames Laboratory will be conducting a nationwide search for a replacement.

“We need someone who has a national reputation in their field and has interacted with the leadership of the Department of Energy before,” Brighton said. A person involved with funding agencies and activities in Washington, D.C., is essential, Brighton said.

Brighton added leadership as another important quality.

“[We are looking for] someone who would be a good leader and would do a good job of pulling people together and looking for ways to establish a new look and a new vision for the laboratory,” he said.