A native of Los Angeles, Raymond Lee Orbach  led the Office of Science since 2002, first as director and as of 2006, as Under Secretary for Science, a newly created position within the DOE established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

 

Orbach received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1956. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the UC Berkeley in 1960 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Orbach began his academic career as a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University in 1960 and became an assistant professor of applied physics at Harvard University in 1961. He joined the faculty of UCLA two years later as an associate professor and became a full professor in 1966. From 1982 to 1992, he served as the Provost of the College of Letters and Science at UCLA. From 1992 to 2002, Orbach served as chancellor of UC Riverside.

 

Orbach has published more than 240 articles in theoretical and experimental physics. He has received numerous honors including two Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowships and a National Science Foundation Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship at Oxford University. Orbach is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.