JoAnne L. Hewett

JoAnne L. Hewett is a theoretical particle physicist, a tenured faculty of the C.N. Yang Institute of Theoretical Physics at Stony Brook University.

Her research interests include physics beyond the Standard Model, dark matter, and hidden dimensions. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

In April 2023, she was named as the next director of Brookhaven National Laboratory and president Brookhaven Science Associates, taking over these roles from Doon Gibbs. On September 23, 2025, she announced her resignation.

Early life and education JoAnne Lea Hewett, daughter of Robert and Jean Hewett, lived in Boulder, Colorado, Phoenix, Arizona, St. Louis, Missouri, and Bettendorf, Iowa, while growing up. She completed her undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics at Iowa State University in 1982, and earned her doctorate there in 1988. Her dissertation, titled Superstring Inspired E(6) Phenomenology, was advised by B.-L. Young.

Career Hewett began her career as a postdoctoral associate from 1988 to 1991 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in 1991–1993 she worked as a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory. In 1994 she joined the faculty at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, where she was a professor in the Stanford Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics. She served as associate lab director of the Fundamental Physics Directorate and the chief research officer at SLAC.

Hewett served on Program Advisory Committees of SLAC, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Cornell Electron Storage Ring. She was elected in 2009 as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.