Compiled from Brookhaven National Lab's The Bulletin, BNL press releases, and Jean Paul Velloti's article in LI Business News.

On Thursday, April 27th, Berkner Hall was full as BNL'ers gathered to thank Praveen Chaudhari for his leadership in the past 3 years. Chaudhari, who announced his retirement at the beginning of the year, stepped down on 4/30.

Samuel Aronson, Associate Lab Director for High Energy and Nuclear Physics, will step in as BNL’s interim director while a nationwide search for a permanent director continues.

In his exit statement, (full text below), Chaudhari said he felt it was time “to make a change, to spend more time at home and to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities to do science at BNL.”  Chaudhari and his wife have had to live apart for the past 3 years and will now be able to spend more time together.

Praveen Chaudhari's Retirement Announcement to BNL Employees

Over the last three years you and I have faced many challenges stemming primarily from a shortfall in funding. We have overcome nearly all of them.

Collectively, we developed a vision for our science and operations and are implementing it. This should put us on a firm path for flourishing over the next decade. The President’s budget has just been announced and we figure prominently in it. This would not have happened if you had not made the sacrifices you did, such as dealing with the delay in salary increases last year, so we could prepare for the future by making investments in the QCD Laboratory, NSLS-II, CFN, and interdisciplinary science essential for breakthrough in energy and the life sciences. I am proud of you.

The Laboratory is in very good shape and, I feel, it is time for me to make a change: to spend more time at home and to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities to do science at BNL. In order to do so, I shall step down from my position as the Director of this great Laboratory, on April 30, 2006, and work part time as a scientist with financial support from BSA.

I want to thank all of you for your support. I also want to thank Jim Simons, President Shirley Kenny, Evelyn Berezin, Rich Gelfond, Denny McGinn (all from the BSA Board) and wish to acknowledge the unstinting support for BNL by the representatives on the Board and the S&T steering committee from the BSA Core Universities: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Princeton and Yale. The Laboratory could not have better friends than these six institutions.

I wish to acknowledge the unwavering support for the Laboratory by Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressman Tim Bishop, Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, and Congressman John Sweeney.

Finally, I want to thank my wife, Karin, who accepted a long distance relationship for the last three years. It has been a difficult period for both of us.