Priscilla Antunez

Assistant Director for Strategic Partnerships, Center for Functional Nanomaterials

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Dr. Priscilla Antunez leads partnerships with businesses, institutions, and agencies, while guiding researchers in the exploration of collaborations and funding opportunities for maximum impact. She also manages strategic communications and employee engagement, retention, and recruitment. In 2019 she detailed for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science to help manage their Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal review process and has continued to work with researchers to strengthen their proposals and leverage DOE User Facilities like CFN. Previously, Dr. Antunez served as a Business Development Executive at Argonne National Lab (another DOE Lab) helping researchers protect their IP and develop strategies to maximize the impact of their work (with special emphasis on partnerships). Before joining Argonne Lab, Dr. Antunez worked at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center, where she published 9 papers, obtained 7 patents, and received Invention Plateau Awards in 2016 and 2017 for her work on solar cell devices. Dr. Antunez received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Southern California, where she researched materials for solar cells. She also received a BS in chemistry from Cal Poly Pomona and majored in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering at the Universidad de Sonora.