Laksana Tri Handoko

Laksana Tri Handoko (born 7 May 1968, in Malang) is an Indonesian scientist and public official specializing in theoretical and particle physics.

He became a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1999, and he's also the secretary of the Humboldt Alumni association of Indonesia.

After returned to Indonesia, Handoko joined LIPI.

In LIPI, he joined Theoretical Physics group.

In 2002, he later become Head of LIPI Theoretical Physics Group, a post he hold for 10 years.

During this time as LIPI scientist, he was appointed as a visiting professor at Department of Physics Bogor Agricultural Institute (2002–2004) and Department of Physics University of Indonesia (since 2002).

At the time of his appointment as Chairman of BRIN, he still holds the visiting professor position at University of Indonesia.

In 2012, he became Head of LIPI Research Center for Informatics.

He formerly served as the deputy head of science and technology for the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Indonesian: Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, LIPI) from 2014 to 2018.

He rose to rank of Deputy III (Engineering Sciences) of LIPI in 2014 until 2018.

In 2018, he replaced Bambang Subiyanto as the acting chairman of the institute.

He has been the Chairman of National Research and Innovation Agency (Indonesian: Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional, BRIN) since 28 April 2021.

Handoko born to Suyono and Susasi.

His father was a physics lecturer at Gadjah Mada University and part-time chicken farmer together with his mother.

At that period, physics lecturer did not earn adequate paycheck due to limited opportunity and salary in Indonesia at that time, resulting his father to have a side job as a chicken farmer.

Through the chicken farming, his parents educated him professionalism and hardworking early in his youth.

Despite his background, Handoko love physics and his love to physics bring him to Bandung Institute of Technology for undergraduate study in physics.

However, when Habibie opened Overseas Fellowship Program scholarship, he become an awardee and resigned from Bandung Institute of Technology.

He completed his undergraduate study at Kumamoto University, and then his graduate study in particle physics at Hiroshima University.

Between his time of undergraduate graduation and master study, he was worked to a Japanese wood factory and later become a gas station employee in Japan.

He become 10th Chairman of LIPI in 2018, succeeding Iskandar Zulkarnaen, the 9th Chairman of LIPI.

Previously, the post was filled in acting capacity by Bambang Subiyanto in transition period between Zulkarnaen to Handoko.

He was the penultimate chairman of LIPI.

On the second reshuffle of the Onward Indonesia cabinet that was announced in 28 April 2021, he was appointed as the second (but first independent) holder of Chairman of BRIN.

After liquidation of Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Indonesian: Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, LIPI), Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (Indonesian: Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi, BPPT), National Nuclear Energy Agency of Indonesia (Indonesian: Badan Tenaga Nuklir Nasional, BATAN), and National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (Indonesian: Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional, LAPAN) into BRIN on 1 September 2021, he currently become the Head of BRIN in its first consolidated form.

As LIPI scientist, he was awarded by:

As Chairman of BRIN, he was awarded The Chinese Government's Friendship Award by Government of China.

In his citation, he is credited with organizing collaborations in the field of nuclear and space research between Indonesia and China.

The award presented by Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia, Lu Kang on 26 April 2022.

As Chairman of LIPI, he was seen as "revolutionary" by implementing revolutionary policies to LIPI reorganization.

The most important revolutionary policies during his time were reorganization of LIPI, which at time the size is very big due to having many non-optimal subunits into slimmer organization and archiving revolution.

Due to his revolutionary policies, he was protested by his seniors at LIPI.

His leadership style as leader of BRIN seen as "one man show leadership" and lack of compromising criticized and protested by his seniors and former colleagues.

He was also become the center of polemic due to human resource issue resulted on Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology liquidation in early 2022.