Dr. James Corones founded the Krell Institute (taking the name from the classic 1956 science fiction movie “Forbidden Planet”) in 1997 to manage three Department of Energy (DOE) programs: the DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, Adventures in Supercomputing, and the Undergraduate Computational Engineering and Sciences Project.
Krell’s location arises from Corones’ background as a tenured mathematics professor at Iowa State University in Ames, and as a researcher and administrator at Ames Laboratory, a DOE facility ISU manages. He chose to maintain the Midwest location to employ experienced staff and maintain access to a qualified science and technology workforce.
Technology and education connect each program we manage. Although our core business is overseeing three of the top graduate fellowships offered by a science agency, we also have managed programs reaching students as early as middle school. We have developed communication products, including magazines, websites, brochures and more, to advance the educational and technological missions of agencies, institutions and laboratories. Krell also manages events, meeting the exacting standards scientific gatherings require. And Krell has executed software-development and other information-technology projects.
Over the course of more than two decades, Krell has become known for technological expertise, attention to detail and quality service.
Senior Management
Ms. Olsan sets overall policy and direction for the Krell Institute and interacts with the company’s board, client representatives and other stakeholders. She oversees Krell’s two largest grant- and contract-sponsored programs, the DOE CSGF and DOE NNSA SSGF and LRGF. Her duties include supervising the day-to-day operations of the fellowships and acting as liaison between Krell, its funders and a nationwide network of academic committee members and advisors. Since joining the company in 2000, she also has led Krell’s strategic and corporate communications efforts. She also directly manages a department that is responsible for planning and staging scientific meetings, maintaining the fellowship program websites, and publishing print and web research magazines and other technical and promotional materials.
Ms. Olsan works collaboratively with the Krell leadership team (finance, technology, client services and communication) and other senior staff to ensure the company delivers to its clients. Specifically, Ms. Olsan leads in establishing the organization’s strategic vision and ensures that vision is communicated and implemented across all segments of the organization. She has worked with the Department of Energy and its lab complex for twenty years.
Ms. Olsan has written multiple successful proposals to fund workforce development initiatives across the government space. A sought-after collaborator, she is currently managing multiple fellowships and science-related projects for the Department of Energy.
Ms. Brosnahan oversees the financial business of Krell’s day-to-day operations and guides the funding processes for programs Krell manages, directing the management of more than $10 million in annual revenue in the process. Duties include working with the major funders and their delegates, governmental reporting, managing the external audit and budgeting. Ms. Brosnahan supervises the business operations department, which receives, verifies and pays tuition, stipend and related payments for Krell’s two main programs, the DOE CSGF and the DOE NNSA SSGF/LRGF. She also handles contracts and payments for Krell’s other programs. Ms. Brosnahan joined Krell in 2017 after serving the higher education sector as controller and assistant controller. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Loras College. Ms. Brosnahan is a licensed CPA and also holds the designation of Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA).
Ms. Imani has been with Krell since 1997 and oversees the information technology group. Under her direction, full- and part-time staff handle the company’s computer and network infrastructure, software platforms, cybersecurity, web application design and development, database development and management, audio-visual projects, and process management and automation. Before joining Krell, Ms. Imani was a computational scientist in the Applied Mathematical Sciences Program at Ames Laboratory for 12 years. She has an M.S. in computer science and a B.S. with a double major in computer science and mathematics, both from Iowa State University.
Board of Directors
Mr. Beck is a technologist and entrepreneur who sits on the boards of several public and private companies and serves on a number of national security boards. After a distinguished career in the military and public service, Mr. Beck began his business career in 1984 with Atlantic Systems Research & Engineering, the first of several companies he founded, oversaw or acquired, including Coleman Research Corporation, Thermo Electron Corporation, Trans Digital Technologies Corporation and Viisage Technology, Inc.
The governor of Virginia and the president of Virginia Tech appointed Mr. Beck to the board of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. Mr. Beck also has collaborated with a number of universities to launch programs that commercialize technology and advance government-to-industry privatization initiatives.
Mr. Beck holds a bachelor's in chemistry from Arkansas State University and a master's from the University of Southern California. He was awarded a fellowship at the Brookings Institute in Washington.
Dr. Burman is president of Jefferson Solutions, a division of the Jefferson Consulting Group LLC. Before joining the Jefferson Group in 1994, Dr. Burman held policy positions in the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He served in the Senate-confirmed position of administrator for federal procurement policy under presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton. As a member of the Senior Executive Service in the early 1980s, Dr. Burman served in OMB’s National Security Division and was the first OMB branch chief to receive a Presidential Rank Award.
He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), a director of the Procurement Round Table, a fellow and member of the Executive Advisory Council of the National Contract Management Association and an honorary member of the National Defense Industrial Association. He is an adjunct professor at George Mason University, an adjunct professor at the International Law Institute (ILI) and a member of ILI’s Procurement Advisory Board. He frequently serves on NAPA and National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council panels addressing federal public policy issues.
Dr. Burman graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut; was a Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of Political Studies, University of Bordeaux, France; and has a Master’s Degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from The George Washington University. He is a technologist and entrepreneur who sits on the boards of several public and private companies and serves on a number of national security boards.
Ms. Crawford retired from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a science and security laboratory, after having served as associate director for computation for 15 years. In that capacity she led the laboratory’s high performance computing efforts, one of the premier computing centers in the world. Prior to her LLNL appointment in July 2001, Ms. Crawford had been with Sandia National Laboratories since 1976, serving on many leadership projects.
She is currently president of the Livermore Lab Foundation, a 501(c)(3), whose mission is to promote the philanthropic engagement of informed, highly motivated donors to advance promising scientific research, technology development and educational endeavors at LLNL.
Ms. Crawford has served on advisory committees for the National Research Council and the National Science Foundation. She co-chaired the Council on Competitiveness High Performance Computing Advisory Committee, and co-chaired the CRDF Global Board. She is a board member of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute; a member of the Strategic Research Advisory Council at Purdue University; and a member of the California Council on Science and Technology, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Ms. Crawford holds a B.S. in mathematics from Redlands University (California) and an M.S. in operations research from Stanford University.