Dr. Chris Fall served as Director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the lead federal agency supporting fundamental scientific research for energy and the nation's largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. He oversaw the Office's two principal thrusts: direct support of scientific research, and development, construction, and operation of unique, open-access scientific user facilities that are made available to external researchers. The Office of Science also is responsible for stewardship of 10 of the Department's 17 national laboratories.

Before joining the Office of Science, Fall served as a Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary for Energy and as Acting Director of DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Fall came to DOE from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), where he served for more than seven years in a variety of roles including Acting Chief Scientist and Lead for the Research Directorate, Deputy Director of Research, Director of the International Liaison Office, and the ONR Innovation Fellow. While on loan from ONR, Fall served for three years in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy as Assistant Director for Defense Programs and then as Acting Lead for the National Security and International Affairs Division. Before government service, Fall was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and he completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California at Davis Institute for Theoretical Dynamics and the New York University Center for Neural Science.

Fall earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Virginia. He also holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.