Salon Startup Makes Waves as a National Beauty Brand
June 30, 2026
SURA and Virginia Tech partnership positions Virginia laboratory for growth as a multi-purpose national lab
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected SURATech as the new management and operating (M&O) contractor for the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab), a premier national scientific research institution. SURATech will assume operations effective June 1, 2026.
While the mission of Jefferson Lab will not change, the award marks a bold new era of discovery for the facility as a cutting-edge, multi-purpose national laboratory at the forefront of science and innovation.
SURATech is the culmination of more than 40 years of successful collaboration between Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) and Virginia Tech, grounded in a shared commitment to operational excellence and the lab’s legacy of advancing science, education and national priorities. The initial base term of the contract is five years, from June 1, 2026, through May 31, 2031. The contract has an award term incentive for exemplary performance, allowing DOE to extend the contract up to a total of 15 years beyond the initial five-year base term.
“Being awarded this contract is both an honor and a responsibility we take seriously,” said SURA President & Chief Executive Officer Sean Hearne. “SURATech was purpose-built to bring the very best in scientific leadership, operational expertise, and innovative approaches for the future of Jefferson Lab.”
“Virginia Tech is proud to partner in this effort to lead one of the nation’s premier research facilities,” said Tim Sands, president of Virginia Tech. “As part of SURATech, we’re ready to support Jefferson Lab’s mission and push the boundaries of discovery in ways that benefit the Commonwealth, nation, and world. This is the result of continued support from our state legislators and governor. Their strategic investments in Jefferson lab, including a new High Performance Data Facility, spur job creation and education across the Commonwealth.”
Under the new management group, Jefferson Lab will continue to be led by Lab Director Jens Dilling, providing continuity of scientific leadership and deep institutional knowledge. Johnathon Huff will serve as Deputy Laboratory Director for Operations, leading science and operations with state-of-the-art systems, processes, and tools to ensure operational excellence and mission delivery. Eric Brown will serve as Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology, focusing on ensuring excellence in science and optimization of scientific facilities.
This leadership team brings a shared commitment to advancing Jefferson Lab’s mission on behalf of the DOE, the nation and the broader scientific community. “Jefferson Lab’s greatest strength has always been its people, and that does not change,” said Dilling. “What this contract represents is DOE’s confidence in our scientific excellence, our operational performance and our potential as a multi-purpose national laboratory. As we continue our evolution, our commitment remains unwavering: to deliver groundbreaking science, focused on nuclear physics using advanced computing and particle accelerators, and exceptional operations in service of the DOE and the nation. We are not starting over; we are building forward.”
Jefferson Lab will advance from a single-purpose Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) into a multi-purpose National Laboratory, driven in part by the advancement of the DOE Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) High Performance Data Facility (HPDF) project. This evolution will position Jefferson Lab as a pioneer in accelerator technologies, powerful computational capabilities, and an unwavering commitment to excellence.
These core capabilities will translate the laboratory’s scientific expertise into real-world solutions that address national priorities and expand opportunity for industry collaboration and workforce development.
In addition to the lab’s three scientific pillars: Nuclear Physics, Data and Computational Science, and Energy and Applied Science and Technology, SURATech’s approach to this evolution includes a new initiative, Spark. Spark is a joint institute anchored by nine Virginia universities—Christopher Newport University, George Mason University, Hampton University, Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Tech, and William & Mary—in partnership with Jefferson Lab, designed to advance research and workforce development in critical science and technology areas.
Spark will serve as a collaborative hub that brings together academic expertise across these institutions with national lab capabilities and industry partnerships to drive innovation in data science, nuclear science and quantum technologies. By drawing on the combined strengths of Virginia’s university network, Spark creates new pathways for education, research, and technology transfer that builds a skilled workforce and supports national priorities and the DOE mission.
The SURATech team brings together a powerful combination of scientific leadership, research capability, and proven operational experience that strengthens Jefferson Lab for its next chapter. SURA contributes decades of experience managing major research facilities along with the breadth of its university network, while Virginia Tech adds the strength of one of the nation’s leading research universities with longstanding ties to the Commonwealth.
These capabilities are supported by integrated subcontractors whose collective federal experience spans the DOE complex, including Fermilab, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Savannah River, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Nevada National Security Site. Honeywell International, Inc. offers industry-leading management and operational expertise, Longenecker & Associates provides mission-tested contractor assurance and mission assurance capabilities, and Akima Facilities Operations provides mission‑critical logistics and facilities operations, leveraging reliability‑centered maintenance and innovative safety solutions to strengthen lab performance. Together, these organizations form a highly capable team committed to delivering operational excellence and advancing DOE’s scientific mission.
“This team represents a powerful collaboration across industry and academia,” Hearne said. “With the combined strengths of our subcontractors and the Spark Institute universities, we are positioned to deliver operational excellence and invest in the workforce that will power the nation’s scientific future.”
###
Further Reading
Contacts:
Jefferson Lab: Lauren Hansen, Jefferson Lab Chief Communications Officer, lhansen@jlab.org, 757-846-0327
SURATech: Sean Hearne, SURATech Board Chairman / SURA CEO & President, sjhearne@sura.org, 505-850-5356
Virginia Tech: Lindsey A. Haugh, Virginia Tech Senior Director of Marketing and Communications,lhaugh@vt.edu, 540-231-6959
###
