Argonne National Laboratory

Millicent Firestone

Deputy Associate Laboratory Director/Senior Science Advisor

Biography

Dr. Millicent ​“Millie” Firestone is the Deputy Associate Laboratory Director and Senior Science Advisor for Argonne’s Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) directorate. In this role, Firestone serves as an integral member of PSE’s directorate leadership team, assisting the Associate Laboratory Director, in partnership with PSE’s division directors, in establishing emerging science directions and implementing a collective, directorate-wide science strategy that aligns with the overall laboratory strategic plan. She also cultivates relationships with the U.S. Department of Energy and other academic, industrial and government organizations to build partnerships that enable ground-breaking research.

Firestone has extensive scientific and leadership experience in synthesis, fabrication and characterization of organic/soft materials and composites. She has also directed research efforts at the interfaces of biology, chemistry, physics and engineering. Firestone received her PhD in chemistry from Northwestern University, and she has served as a scientist at both Argonne and Los Alamos National Laboratories.

She also has experience in program development, strategic planning, program capture and large, interdisciplinary program management. Prior to her current role, she served as Deputy Head for the Office of National and Homeland Security at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she aided the development of cross-laboratory research programs and managed partnerships with other governmental security and defense institutions.

Recent Publications:

  1. Dattelbaum, D. M.; Watkins, E. B.; Firestone, M. A.; Huber, R. C.; Gustavsen, R. L.; Ringtrand, B. S.; Coe, J. D.; Gleason, A. E.; Lee, H. J.; Galtier, E.; Sandberg. R. ​“Carbon clusters formed from shocked benzene”, Nature Communications 2021, 12(1), 1-9.

  2. Bandegi, A.; Garcia, M. G. M.; Bañuelos, J. L.; Firestone, M. A.; Foudazi, R.“Soft nanoconfinement of ionic liquids in lyotropic liquid crystals”, Soft Matter  2021, 17, 8118-8129.

  3. Diouf, S. I. Y.; Williams, D. J.; Londoño-Calderon, A.; Pettes, M. R.; Seifert, S. Firestone, M. A. ​“Synergistic single process additive manufacturing of hydro-responsive Ag nanoparticles composites by digital visible light processing 3D printing”, Materials Advances 2020, 1(7), 2219-2224.

  4. Welch, P. M.; Dreier, T. A.; Magurudeniya, H. D.; Frith, M. G.; IIavsky, J.; Seifert, S.; Rahman, A. K.;Rahman, A.; Joshi, A.;Ringstrand, B. S.; Hanson, C. J.; Hollingsworth, J. A.; Firestone, M. A. ​“3D Volumetric Structural Hierarchy Induced by Colloidal Polymerization of a Quantum-Dot Ionic Liquid Monomer Conjugate”, Macromolecules 2020, 53(8), 2822-2833.

  5. Bagge-Hansen, M.; Bastea, S.; Hammons, J. A.; Nielsen, M. H.; Lauderbach, L. M.; Hodgin, R. L.;Pagoria, P.; May, C.; Aloni, S.; Jones, A.; Shaw, W. L.; Bukovsky, E. V.; Sinclair, N.; Gustavsen, R. L.;Watkins, E. B.; Jensen, B. J.; Dattelbaum, D. M.; Firestone, M. A.; Huber, R. C.; Ringstrand, B. S.; Lee,J. R. I.; van Buuren, T.; Fried, L. E.; Willey, T. M. ​“Detonation synthesis of carbon nano-onions via liquid carbon condensation”, Nature Materials 2019, 10(1), 1-8.

  6. Qavi, S.; Firestone, M. A.; Foudazi, R. ​“Elasticity and yielding of mesophases of block copolymers in water–oil mixtures”, Soft Matter, 2019, 15(28), 5626-5637.

  7. Ndefru, B.; Ringstrand, B. S.; Diouf, S. I-Y. F.; Seifert, S.; Dreier, T. Firestone, M. A. ​“Multiscale additive manufacturing of polymers using 3D photo-printable self-assembling ionic liquid monomer”, Molecular Systems Design & Engineering, 2019, 4(3), 580-585.