As FRIB chief scientist, Witold (Witek) Nazarewicz advises the laboratory director on issues related to science, and articulates FRIB’s capabilities to the national and international science community, including potential users. He also ensures that FRIB research programs remain at the cutting edge of the field, address important science questions, and are widely regarded as well-founded, appropriate, and of high scientific impact. Additionally, he is responsible for cultivating a vibrant FRIB theory effort to help FRIB users realize the full scientific potential of FRIB.

Witek is a John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Physics at Michigan State University. Since 1991, he has been a professor at Warsaw University. During 1995-2014, he was a James McConnell Distinguished Professor in Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of Tennessee. From 1999-2012 he served as the scientific director of the ORNL Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility and during 2013-2015 was appointed at UT-Battelle Corporate Fellow at ORNL. He has held several visiting positions, including professorships at Lund University, the University of Cologne, Kyoto University, the University of Liverpool, Vanderbilt University, and Peking University.

Witek is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the U.K. Institute of Physics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was named a 2008 Carnegie Centenary Professor by the Carnegie Trust in Scotland; received an Honorary Doctorate from University of the West of Scotland in 2009 and from the University of York, U.K. in 2019; was awarded the 2012 Tom W. Bonner Prize from the American Physical Society; received the 2017 G.N. Flerov Prize from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia; and received the Casimir Funk Natural Sciences Award of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America in 2021. 

Witek is the author of 15 review papers and more than 450 refereed publications in scientific journals, and editor of seven books. With more than 30,000 citations and an h-index ~90, he is among the most highly-cited nuclear theorists. He has also made more than 175 contributions to major conferences, published in their respective proceedings. He has given ~315 invited talks at major international conferences and more than 300 invited seminars and colloquia. Witek has helped organize ~90 meetings and conferences and presently serves on 10 professional committees.