Welcome to Joerg Heber, who joins us as Research Integrity Officer (RIO), reporting to Deputy Lab Director for Research Horst Simon. In this position, Joerg will lead Lab-wide efforts to help researchers with best practices and ensure the Lab continues to adhere to the highest standards of research integrity and ethical behavior. As RIO, he will also be overseeing the newly created Research Compliance Office (RCO), which also includes our Conflict of Interest programs. His first day at the Lab will be December 1.
“I am excited for Joerg to join us,” said Horst Simon, the Lab’s Deputy Director for Research. “With his background and rich experiences, Joerg can build further on our work in this area, ensuring the highest standards of research integrity at the Lab.”
“I am delighted to join Berkeley Lab,” said Joerg. “I very much look forward to working with researchers at the Lab on all aspects related to research integrity and to maintain its excellence in research.”
Joerg’s most recent position was editorial director at Public Library of Science (PLOS) and editor-in-chief at PLOS ONE; he was responsible for editorial strategies and editorial development of all PLOS journals and he held editorial responsibility for PLOS ONE. Before that, he was executive editor of Nature Communications, where he managed the editorial teams and was responsible for the journal’s editorial strategy. At Nature Communications, he implemented the journal’s transparent peer review initiative and contributed to its transition to open access publishing.
Prior to joining Nature, Joerg was a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo and lecturer at Philipps-University Marburg, Germany. Joerg obtained his PhD in semiconductor physics at Imperial College in London and did postdoctoral work at Bell Labs.